NCJ Number
87150
Date Published
1980
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The New Jersey's Assembly Legislative Oversight Committee offers suggestions for ways to reduce defaults for court fines to be paid on the installment plan.
Abstract
The New Jersey Supreme Court has prohibited the jailing of a convicted defendant merely because of inability to pay his fine and stipulated that he must be given the opportunity to pay in installments. The Court allowed failures to meet installments could result in jail sentences. However, so many defendants have pleaded indigency and have been placed on installment payments that the unpaid balance of installment fines throughout the State is now estimated to total $5-$10 million. Defendants often surreptitiously move out of the area or simply fail to maintain payments. The State could tighten the conditions under which a defendant is permitted to pay a fine in installments. A popular proposal for increasing the consequences for nonpayment is the suspension of the offender's driver's license. The appropriateness of this remedy for nontraffic offenses is questionable, but it is a sensible recourse for the 40-50 percent of traffic-related cases. The report provides the procedures used in Middlesex County to determine whether offenders are capable of making a lump sum fine payment.