New Jersey's highest court is considering tossing as many as 788,000 open warrants for minor offenses such as parking tickets as part of an overhaul of the state's municipal court system.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner took early steps Thursday to dismiss hundreds of thousands of cases that are more than 15 years old because they were never prosecuted.

The move follows a scathing report from the state judiciary that found local courts were too often using warrants and license suspensions to squeeze money out of low-level defendants, among other problems.

An order issued Thursday by the Supreme Court sets up a process for dismissing the cases, including a series of hearings around the state at which local officials could argue against throwing out certain charges in front of a panel of three Superior Court judges.

The order covers open warrants issued prior to 2003 for failure to appear in low-level cases. They include 355,619 cases concerning parking tickets, 348,631 moving violations and a smaller number of cases related to violations of town ordinances.

Dismissing the cases would mean tossing both the open warrant and the underlying unpaid ticket.

"Those old outstanding complaints and open warrants in minor matters raise questions of fairness, the appropriate use of limited public resources by law enforcement and the courts, the ability of the state to prosecute cases successfully in light of how long matters have been pending and the availability of witnesses, and administrative efficiency," Rabner wrote.

More serious charges like speeding and drunken driving would not be included, according to a copy of the order.

Throwing out old low-level cases was among 49 recommendations made earlier this week by a Supreme Court committee charged with reviewing problems in the municipal court system, which found the open warrants could lead to poor defendants being jailed for old tickets they may not even be aware they had not paid.

In its report, the committee acknowledged the growing "public perception" that municipal courts "operate with a goal to fill the town's coffers" which was "contrary to the purpose of the courts."

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.