The 18-month Traffic Ticket/Infraction Amnesty Program that began
October 1, 2015, designed to provide relief to individuals from
the increasing costs of fines, fees, penalties, and assessments
that were incurred from unpaid traffic and non-traffic tickets,
will end April 3.
According to the Judicial Council, since the program’s launch
county court and collection agencies have reported the following
numbers:
205,686 delinquent accounts have been reduced
192,452 driver’s licenses have been reinstated
$35,530,680 has been collected
Court and county collections programs provided quarterly updates
to the Judicial Council throughout the time frame of the
program. All program quarterly reports are available here. A
final report on the outcomes of the amnesty program will be
submitted by the Judicial Council to the Legislature on or before
August 31 and will be posted on the Council’s website.
While the traffic Amnesty Program is concluding, that is not the
end to reforms in the fines and fees area. The Governor’s
January budget proposes to eliminate the ability for the courts
or counties to request a license suspension on failure to pay
fines and fees for traffic violations.
In addition, there are several measures working their way through
the Legislature that impact fine and fee collections. SB
185 by Senator Bob Hertzberg prohibits license suspensions for
failure to pay or appear in court for minor traffic tickets.
Specifically, SB 185 would require courts to reinstate suspended
licenses for anyone making a good-faith effort to meet their
obligations.
Additionally, this measure would require courts to: provide
affordable payment plans, assess an individual’s ability to pay,
reduce the total amount owed by low-income individuals, change
payment plans according to an individual’s changing economic
circumstances and eliminate debt after 4 years for low-income
individuals who have exhibited a continuous inability to pay.
CSAC has serious concerns with the approach of SB 185, which does
not address the complexity of the current collections system, but
instead takes away a tool the courts and county collection
agencies use to collect the fines and fees they are mandated by
law to collect. SB 185 is set to be heard in the Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee on April 4th.
