why are court fines more with a attorney

Why do courts rely excessively on criminal fee and fine practices?

As some of the factors associated with the court costs involve your behavior, that may be another good reason to put your possible court fees in the hands of an experienced traffic ticket attorney. They know the how to approach a judge, and almost as importantly, how not to aggravate him/her .

What should state legislators do about fines?

For more information on Hiring An Attorney & Paying Fines, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling (703) 691- 4366 today.

Are court fines and fees unjust?

May 09, 2017 · Courts aren’t interested in actually calculating the deterrence effects of certain financial penalties. They want to fund their operations, and poor people’s paychecks are a convenient piggy bank. We know that fines and fees have, in many jurisdictions, created pernicious debt traps for the poor, arising from trivial offenses.

Do courts keep track of court fees and fines?

Fines can include court costs and other fees. A judge may order a fine as the whole or part of a sentence. Fines can be ordered for a wide range of offenses. The notice of a fine may state: 1. the offense 2. the amount of the fine 3. when and where the fine must be paid (the due date) 4. your rights of appeal (as the "defendant")

Why are fines important?

The purpose of fines is to deter people from violating the law and punish those who do. But a $200 fine may represent an insurmountable obstacle to one person and a minor inconvenience to another. Charging people amounts they cannot pay is draconian. State legislatures should statutorily scale fines according to a defendant’s wealth and how much he or she earns in a day, adjusted for essential expenses and obligations such as child support. In addition to ending the disproportionate punishments given to the poor, sliding-scale fines would more effectively incentivize the wealthy to obey the law. Studies show that sliding-scale fines can increase both collection rates and total fine revenue. footnote1_kddu3p1 49#N#Bureau of Justice Assistance, How to Use Structured Fines (Day Fines) as an Intermediate Sanction, U.S. Department of Justice, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/156242.pdf.#N#Mandating that fines are calibrated according to ability to pay would also drastically reduce the resources allocated to collections — since fines that are manageable are more likely to be paid — and reduce the burden on indigent defendants, creating a more efficient and just system.

Why are fines and fees so inefficient?

One reason that fees and fines are so inefficient as a revenue raiser is that each year millions of people are given sentences that include fines and fees they are simply unable to pay. From watching more than 1,000 court proceedings in seven jurisdictions, the authors found that judges rarely hold ability-to-pay hearings. While there are plainly up-front costs associated with such hearings, in the long run, jurisdictions would spend less money by holding them rather than trying to chase down debts that cannot be paid.

What is a waiver for jail time?

Jail credits. Some states waive fees and fines in exchange for jail time, which are referred to as jail credits and are distinct from the kinds of credits through which people earn reductions to sentences.

How should courts be funded?

Courts should be funded primarily by taxpayers, all of whom are served by the justice system. States should institute a sliding scale for assessing fines based on individuals’ ability to pay. The purpose of fines is to punish those who violate the law and deter those who might otherwise do so.

What is an assessment in court?

Assessment. As used in this report, assessment refers to the amount of the fee or fine imposed by a judge on a criminal defendant at sentencing. For many minor offenses, assessments are made at the conclusion of a simple hearing before a judge or magistrate in which the defendant makes a plea, the evidence is reviewed, and a decision is made by the judge or magistrate. More complex and serious criminal cases may involve separate appearances in court, including an arraignment in which the charges are read and a defendant’s plea is accepted by the judge, a trial before the judge (and possibly a jury), and a sentencing hearing, at which point fees and fines may be imposed by the judge.

Why are criminal fees important?

Often they are automatically imposed and bear no relation to the offense committed. In most cases, fees are intended to shift the costs of the criminal justice system from taxpayers to defendants, who are seen as the “users” of the courts.

Is jailing a person for poverty unconstitutional?

The Supreme Court has held that “punishing a person for his poverty” is unconstitutional. Still, states and localities continue to jail large numbers of indigent defendants as a sanction for unpaid criminal justice debt. Jailing people for nonpayment is by far the most expensive method of enforcing collections and generates little to no revenue making it highly uneconomical. In counties where courts incarcerate for failure to pay, the authors found that the cost of incarceration dwarfs other collections costs. For example, in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, jail costs represent as much as 98 percent of the collection costs documented by the authors. footnote8_api3uie 40#N#New Mexico collections data provided at case level by New Mexico Judicial Information Division. Cost data calculated through a combination of court watching, surveys, and analysis of credits (see Appendix B: Methodology).

What happens if fines are flat?

If fines are imposed at flat rates, poor people are being punished while rich people are not. If it’s true that wealthy defendants couldn’t care less about fines (and a millionaire with a $500 fine really couldn’t care less), then they’re not actually being deprived of anything in consequence of their violation of law.

Why do flat rate fines make no sense?

If the point of retribution is to make someone suffer a harm in proportion to the suffering they themselves have imposed (a dubious idea to begin with), flat-rate fines make no sense, because some people are being sentenced to far greater suffering than others.

What is the purpose of punishment?

Punishment is supposed to serve the goals of retribution, deterrence, or rehabilitation. Leaving aside for the moment whether these are actually worthy goals, or whether criminal courts actually care about these goals, flat-rate fines don’t serve any of them when it comes to wealthy defendants.

What happens if courts aren't calibrating fees based on people's actual wealth?

If courts aren’t calibrating fees based on people’s actual wealth, then massively differential punishments are being imposed. Some people receive indenture while others receive no punishment at all, even given the same offense at the same level of culpability.

What does "eye for eye" mean?

Taking “an eye for an eye” means something quite different when imposed on a one-eyed man than it does with a twenty-eyed man.

What does it mean to write a check to the court?

It means many months of indebtedness as you slowly work off your debt to the court. It might mean not buying clothes for your child, or forgoing necessary medical treatment. Of course, the situation changes if you’re wealthy, or even middle-class. You write the check, you leave the court, the case is over.

What does it mean to be fined $500?

For my poor clients, a fine means actual hardship. In extreme cases, it can mean a kind of indenture, as the reports have pointed out. If you make $1,000 a month, and are trying to pay rent and support yourself, a $500 fine means a lot. It means many months of indebtedness as you slowly work off your debt to the court.

Find a legal form in minutes

Browse US Legal Forms’ largest database of 85k state and industry-specific legal forms.

Court Fines Law and Legal Definition

A fine is an amount of money that the court has ordered to be paid as a penalty. Fines may be ordered in a variety of civil cases, such as traffic citations or drunk and disorderly citations. Fines can include court costs and other fees. A judge may order a fine as the whole or part of a sentence. Fines can be ordered for a wide range of offenses.

What can a judge consider when imposing a fine?

A judge can consider the defendant’s ability to pay (income and assets) when imposing a fine. A disabled defendant on a fixed income will be ordered to pay less than one who is working. Whether the defendant financially benefited from the crime.

What is the minimum fine a judge can impose?

On the other hand, a judge might impose a fine of $1,000 or more and no jail time for a misdemeanor such as driving on a suspended license. ...

What is the purpose of restitution?

Unlike fines and fees, whose primary purpose is to punish, restitution repays victims for their losses. Restitution might go directly to the victim or to a victim compensation fund.

How long can you go to jail for a misdemeanor?

For misdemeanors, which typically carry a potential jail sentence of 364 or 365 days, judges might impose a fine with no other punishment, particularly when the crime was relatively minor and for first-time offenders. For felonies and serious misdemeanors, judges impose criminal fines in addition to penalties such as probation, community service, ...

What is an infraction?

What Are Infractions? Infractions are offenses that typically carry a punishment of fines, but not jail time. Because infractions cannot result in a jail sentence or even probation, defendants charged with infractions do not have a right to a jury trial or a court-appointed lawyer.

What does a sentencing judge decide?

In each case, the sentencing judge decides on an appropriate fine within that range. Judges consider the following issues when making their decisions. The seriousness of the crime. Judges generally impose higher fines in felony cases than in misdemeanors.

Where do criminal fines go?

According to an Overview of State Criminal Fines and Fees published by the Legislative Analyst’s Office on February 5, 2019, most of the income from criminal fines and fees goes to individual state governments.

Dealing With High Criminal Court Costs

In the recent case of State v. Blazina, the Supreme Court of Washington considered whether legal financial obligations assessed against two criminal defendants were properly imposed. RCW 10.01.160 (3) states that courts cannot order defendants to pay criminal court costs unless the defendant is or will be able to pay them.

Are Excessive Court Fees Causing Un-due Hardships?

In Blazina, the trial court imposed court costs against the defendants without considering either defendant’s current or future ability to pay the costs, but simply ordered the costs as part of the sentence.

Are Criminal Fines Any Different?

In State v. Clark, the Washington Court of Appeals differentiated fines form court costs. Courts are not required to consider a defendant’s current and future ability to pay fines before a judge can impose them, however, trial courts are strongly encouraged to follow a similar analysis as with court costs.

What happens if you appeal a family court decision?

If you do decide to appeal the decisions of the family court, the Supreme Court, no less, will very likely uphold and support the malfeasance of the family court because the antics of the lower court personnel mirror those of the Supreme Court. I bet the family court personnel have recognized this and are busy minting.

What happens if an attorney liases with your spouse?

If an attorney manages to liase many or all all your issues, then you have already lost, especially if they have told you not to talk to the spouse and they have served their purpose by fait accompli. If it comes down to money, you have lost, that is the level of basic understanding marriage has become for males.

What is the most important thing in the end?

In the end, the most important thing is keeping parents and children safe, and maintaining the economic viability of parents. These all involve human and civil rights. What despairs me, is that the judiciary is far too willing to rule in favor of men in appeals, and not take cases of mothers and children.

How can you create debt?

Like federal scrip, you can create debt by articulating an argument on paper. That is what statutory law is, the creation of debt. On average if the paperwork is not a valid contract it is simply at best a billable script called attorney ‘work product’. know the difference, an attorney is a processor of statutory law.

Do judges know the laws in Florida?

And your are right, the judges dont know the laws and/or the Florida Statutes, so no one should take for granted that they do. But the reality is,,they dont know them because they dont have to know them, because they just fly by the seat of their pants and there is no one to check them.

Did the gal investigate any of the leads I gave him?

The gal did not investigate any of the leads I gave him. The magistrate had a stay for seven months. And the clerk of courts refused to send out the subpoenas. The clerk of courts told my attorney’s staff they were to short of staff to fax the subpoenas over my attorney’s office the day before the trial.

Key Findings

Recommendations

What’s The Difference Between Fees and Fines?

The Growing Use of Fees and Fines — and The Damage They’Ve Done

Report Terms