Abstract
In criminal courts across the country, judges assess a variety of fines, fees and other legal financial obligations (LFOs) that many defendants struggle to pay. This paper examines the disproportionate burden that fine and fee assessment and collection practices impose on low-income, system-involved individuals, using administrative court data for criminal cases filed in Washington’s courts of limited jurisdiction between 2015 and 2020. The authors find that the majority of defendants do not or only partially pay their LFOs, but that these observations are more pronounced for indigent defendants. The authors also find that, of defendants who fully pay off their fines and fees, individuals with a public defender satisfy their debt after a greater number of days, as compared to individuals with private counsel. This is all in spite of public defender defendants generally being assessed smaller amounts in fines and fees at the outset. Additionally, the authors uncover that when defendants do pay off all of their fines and fees, they tend to do so on the day of assessment, with the likelihood of satisfying full payment generally decreasing as time goes on. These findings suggest that many people struggle with criminal justice debt, but that this problem disproportionately impacts indigent Washingtonians, subjecting them to a greater possibility of harm through the various methods of collections enforcement.
Highlights
Criminal justice debt is a major problem in criminal courts across the country
Given the severe consequences for non-payment of legal financial obligations (LFOs), investigation into fine and fee assessment and payment practices is merited to understand the scale of the debt burden on system-involved individuals
Findings suggest that the people who have ability to paytotheir will pay so willand paydoand these findings suggest that the people whothe have the ability payLFOs their LFOs immediately, while the people who do not have the ability to pay suffer with the burden of do so immediately, while the people who do not have the ability to pay suffer with the criminal justice debt for at least half of a year and—as other research suggests—possibly burden of criminal justice debt for at least half of a year and—as other research suggests—
Summary
Criminal justice debt is a major problem in criminal courts across the country. Each day, these courts assess thousands of dollars in fines, fees, and other types of legal financial obligations (LFOs) that many defendants struggle to pay and risk never paying, at a devastating cost. Using attorney representation by a public defender as a proxy for indigence, the authors hypothesize that low-income individuals would be less able to afford court-imposed financial obligations, making them vulnerable to incur legal debt that they may never be able to address. To test this hypothesis, the authors use administrative data from the courts of limited jurisdiction in Washington State and evaluate whether an individual’s indigence has a significant impact on their LFO assessment and payment outcomes. Because of the nature of the data, payment information is limited to just those
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