Ki Kim waited nearly two hours in a downtown Honolulu traffic courtroom Friday for his chance to challenge a ticket from August for talking on a hand-held cellphone while driving.

But by the time he was called before District Family Judge Linda Luke, in some ways Kim felt like he’d already lost.

"I have to work. Time is money," the Oahu taxi driver whispered anxiously while in the back of the room. Kim, a South Korea native who said he’s lived on the island about a year, said he’d already taken two days off work to fight the ticket in court. "There’s no time to come again," he said.

If he had been pulled over before July 1, Kim could have instead challenged the ticket in writing, via mail.

However, Act 74, the new statewide law banning drivers from using hand-held cellphones and other electronic devices while driving, requires everyone cited in Hawaii to make a court appearance — even if they’re not contesting the ticket.

That’s because the new distracted-driving law treats driving and talking on a cellphone without a hands-free device (such as a Bluetooth headset) as a traffic violation and not just an infraction, court officials say.

Since the new state law went into effect, more than 4,500 drivers have been cited for Act 74 violations, according to state Judiciary records. At least 2,700 of those drivers have gone to state court, with all but about 230 of them being convicted. The remaining court cases are pending.

"At this point, the sheer numbers are definitely stretching our resources," Dave Koga, a spokesman for the Honolulu prosecutor’s office, said in an email Friday. "Hopefully, as more people become aware of the law, we’ll see a reduction in cases."

Hawaii State Judiciary spokeswoman Marsha Kitagawa said it wasn’t clear Friday what, if any, impact the added court appearances are having on the system.

Act 74 supercedes previous distracted-driving laws passed in each of Hawaii’s counties. It looks to provide "consistent requirements across all counties" to simplify enforcement against the problem, according to a statement from Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s office.

The state law calls for a fine between $100 and $200 for the first offense, a fine between $200 and $300 for a second offense within a year and a fine between $300 and $500 for any other offenses within two years of the first two violations. Fines are doubled in school and construction zones.

To "use" a mobile electronic device means to hold it while operating a vehicle, according to the law’s language.

Exceptions include 911 calls and calls by emergency responders. The law prohibits drivers under 18 years old from making any cellphone calls — even with a headset or hands-free device — while driving, unless it’s a 911 call.

Under Oahu’s previous county ban enacted in 2009, drivers were charged a $170 penalty, Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said. Those drivers could pay their ticket by mailing in the money.

However, Honolulu Police Department officers can’t tell whether the drivers they pull over for illegally using a cellphone have any prior cellphone violations, so those drivers have to go to court so the prosecutor can charge them appropriately, Yu said Friday.

Nearly 2,900 of the state’s 8,770 vehicle crashes in 2007 were due to distracted driving, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Kim, who speaks English as a second language, told Luke on Friday that he was using a hands-free device partially hidden by his shirt collar when the HPD officer pulled him over. On the citation, however, the officer said Kim was holding a cellphone up to his mouth.

Because a Korean translator wasn’t in court, Kim would have had to come back at least one more day to continue his challenge. But Kim said he couldn’t afford to keep taking off work and instead opted to pay the fine: $100 plus $47 in court fees.

"Oh my gosh," he said, shaking his head at the experience as he left the courtroom.