How do I pay off the court fines, penalties, and administrative fees?

As discussed on PG. 660, court fines and penalties are debts you may incur as punishment or consequences for the crime you were charged with. Court administrative fees are the fees that are paid for the daily operation of the court. While these two debts are different, here these debts are discussed together because they are usually grouped together (totaled) when discussing how much you owe the court and require you to pay both fees together and to pay these fees to one office.

The process for collecting court fines and fees is complicated and may be different from county to county. In general, you can follow these instructions:[2286]

Contact the court(s) where you were convicted

See PG. 673 (Step 1 on how to find out how much you owe in court fines and administrative fees) for instructions on how to identify and contact the court(s) where you were convicted.

Find out who is in charge of collecting your debt and contact them

Different counties have different methods for collecting court fines and fees. Depending on where you are located, collection may be handled by different agencies, including the court itself, a county agency, a private collection agency, or the Franchise Tax Board. See PG. 673 above (Steps 2-3 on how to find out how much you owe in court fines and administrative fees) for instructions on how to identify and contact the agency(ies) in charge of collecting your debt. Remember that your debts may be collected by several different collection agencies, so you may need to contact each of these different agencies about making payments.

Discuss your payment options.

When you contact the collection agency or court that’s in charge of your debt, a representative can help you design a payment plan that works best for your situation. The goal is to create a plan that will prevent you from facing extra fees or other penalties (like a hold on your DMV record) that can result from late or insufficient payments.

It is important to be open and honest about your current financial situation, including whether or not you have a job, pay child support, or owe any other debts or payments. Most of the time, the collection representative will take these things into account and work with you to create a plan that you can realistically stick to.

Depending on your individual situation and the amount of money you owe, the collection agency may ask you to pay everything off right away. In other situations, they may allow you to set up a payment plan so that you make smaller payments over time. Remember that the agency or court might charge a fee to cover the costs of managing your payment plan, and might charge additional fees for each payment you make.[2287] Collection agencies can also charge BIG penalty fees for any late payments (or even demand that you pay off the entire remaining amount due). Make sure you ask about fees and penalties and/or read the fine print before you agree to a payment plan!

IMPORTANT: USING COMMUNITY SERVICE TO PAY OFF FINES. In the past, every county’s court system had different policies regarding the extent to which community service could reduce court-ordered debt. However, on January 1, 2017, the Penal Code was amended to include a provision expressly allowing community service to reduce fines associated with misdemeanor and felony convictions.[2288] Recent case law suggests that each day of community service completed will reduce such a fine by $125.[2289]

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  1. 2286

    Telephone interview with Anita Lee, Legislative Analyst, Cal. Legislative Analyst Office (Feb. 12, 2015); see also Cal. Legislative Analyst Office, Restructuring the Court-Ordered Debt Process, 9 (Nov. 2014).

  2. 2287

    Cal. Penal Code § 1205(e) (mandating payment of administrative fees for court installment plans on fines and fees).

  3. 2288

    Cal. Penal Code §§ 1205, 2900.5.

  4. 2289

    People v. Carranza (2016) 6 Cal.Alpp.5th Supp. 17 , 29 (stating, “The clear purpose of the bill, as discerned from the text of the amendments enacted, was to increase the amount of credit from $30 to $125, and to concomitantly reduce the amount of time in custody, or—by application of section 1205.3—the community service days, required to satisfy a fine.”