I got a question today on how we can get a defendant to pay a fine after it is imposed. Throwing the defendant in jail just means it costs the county money and the defendant gets a hefty credit toward his fine.

I am curious as to what creative methods others use to collect a fine.

In The Perfect Plea, I suggest that the defendant should not be sentenced until he has the money to pay the fine in full. But, judges may not want to keep cases on the docket for that long.

Any other ideas?

I think my county has put together a model program for collection. I think they even package it for other counties. I don't know specifics, but I think it is really just aggressive collection. I think another thing that is being tried is to inform them they need to bring money when they plead so that they can start paying.

Even out in forgotten west Texas we have started a Court Collections Office. Our collections are up; that office is paying for itself in only its first year of operation. I don't know what they do to collect $$, I just know they are getting the job done.

The Harris County District Clerk has gotten a lot of press about the criminal collections program he instituted in 1997 - it essentially requires that defendants found guilty either pay their fines in full or set up a payment program before they leave the courthouse. See the news story from January 25, 2000: http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/Current_News/Current_News.asp

Lubbock County has a Collections Department that has been doing a great job of increasing the percentage of fines actually collected. They work primarily by setting up payment plans which are made part of the terms of probation. Failure to pay is treated as a violation of the terms of probation; however, the Collections Department is set up to pay closer attention to payments than the probation department. Through our Collections Department, I have become aware of the Governmental Collectors Association of Texas (GovCAT), which has a website at www.govcat.net. You might look there for additional help. One caveat: GovCAT is, at times, very aggressive. I suggest you do your own legal due diligence before jumping on their bandwagon.

In a case where the offense could involve jail time, our County Judge, on occasion, will suspend the jail time, and later give credit for time served, if the defendant pays the fine within a certain amount of time.

If the person is placed on probation, we have offered a high fine, and probated part of it (such as a $1,000.00 fine, and probated $250.00). If the person successfully completes probation, they will only pay $750.00. If they are revoked, they owe the whole $1,000.00.

I haven't kept track of how well it works, but it's an incentive....