Collection Testimonials

From Oakland County, Michigan
I basically knew nothing about collections a year ago when I was asked to create a pilot program to increase collections in our Court. We collect about $6 million a year through felony cases in our Circuit Ct with 14 judges. I attended the Court Collections Conf. in Las Vegas last fall. I learned a lot, although I do wish there was some more time devoted to or a break out session specifically for encouraging judges to take a more active role in enforcing their monetary court orders because that's where my focus was.  In Dec. of last year, we kicked off a pilot program where judges took an active roll in enforcing payments of fines, costs, and fees at the time
of sentencing. With 5 judges, we collected $270,000 more in the first five months of this year than the first 5 months of last year, and that is in a time when the economy in Michigan is in shambles and collections are going down across the State.

Alicia Urbain
Oakland County, Michigan

From Polk County Florida - Lyle Bulman
The Polk County Clerk of the Circuit Court Collections Enforcement Department sent 15,234 cases sent to Collections Enforcement over the past 14 months. Out of $4,174,130.29 assessed, $2,462,330.17 collected to date (60%). Eighty-five percent of those on payment plans are paying on time and approximately 35% is collected within the first 30 days.

From the State of Arizona - Mike DiMarco
The Fines/Fees and Restitution Enhancement (FARE) Program is a statewide initiative of the Judicial branch with goals of compliance and respect for court orders and the law, enhanced customer service, increased revenues, consistency and uniformity in case processing and efficiencies in the collection process. The program is a public/private partnership involving the courts, the Motor Vehicle Division, the Department of Revenue and a private vendor.

While the purpose of courts is not to produce revenue but to dispense justice, many court orders have a fine or penalty attached. Improving the enforcement of court orders will result in increased revenues as well as more equal justice. The FARE program had objectives 1) to expand the State Tax Intercept Program to all courts, 2) to implement the MVD vehicle registration hold program and 3) to provide for centralized collections activity. These three objectives were anticipated to increase revenues by at least $28 million dollars. For fiscal years 2003-2006 revenues have increased $46.7 million with only one-third of the state courts participating in the program. A fourth objective was to have Congress pass a federal tax intercept program for state court debt. This Act is currently waiting final Senate approval. When approved this is anticipated to add another $23 million in collections.