BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 2724 (Bradford) - Failure to appear in court: fines.
Amended: As Introduced Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2724 would require a court to issue and file a
certificate with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and
request that a hold on a defendant's driver's license be lifted
if an agreement has been signed to pay a fine in installments,
or an agreement has been signed to perform community service in
lieu of paying the fine. This bill would provide that the
ability to pay a fine is not a prerequisite to filing a request
with the court to vacate a civil assessment, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Potentially major ongoing net reduction in fine, fee, and
surcharge revenue to the courts (General Fund*) and various
other local and state funds (General Fund, Special**) in the
millions of dollars to the extent a portion of court-ordered
debt takes longer to collect or is not ultimately collected,
either through non-payment or satisfaction of debt through
community service. One percent of annual revenues from
delinquent court-ordered debt collections would equate to
$6.7 million.
Potentially significant ongoing loss of civil assessment
revenue to the courts (General Fund*) and counties through
increased requests to vacate assessments and/or underlying
charges without payment. One percent of annual assessment
revenues would equate to $1.4 million.
Net increase in ongoing court workload and costs (General
Fund*) to issue certificates for signed agreements, collect
installment payments, and request removal of drivers'
license holds. DMV data indicates over 520,000 licenses were
suspended in 2013, with about 11,000 licenses reinstated due
to fines being paid in full. As the likelihood of
collection on delinquent court-ordered debt declines as the
account ages, there could be some degree of offsetting
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administrative cost savings for those accounts that would
not have been collected upon.
Minor ongoing costs (Special***) to DMV to process
additional requests to lift license suspensions.
To the extent the provisions of this bill enable persons to
retain employment and remain in compliance with various
program requirements (such as CalWORKs), potential near-term
increase in program costs due to fewer sanctions, with
potential future cost savings to the extent extended
dependence on public assistance is reduced.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
**DNA Identification Fund, State Penalty Fund, Victim Witness
Assistance Fund, Corrections Training Fund, among others.
***Motor Vehicle Account
Background: Under existing law, when a person fails, after
notice and without good cause, to appear in court for any
proceeding, or fails to pay any portion of a fine for an
infraction, misdemeanor, or felony, or fails to pay a bail
installment, the court may impose an additional civil assessment
of up to $300. (Penal Code (PC) § 1214.1(a).)
Existing law provides that the assessment will not become
effective until at least 10 calendar days after the court mails
a warning notice to the defendant, as specified. Under existing,
law, the court is required to vacate the assessment if the
defendant appears within the time specified in the notice and
shows good cause for the failure to appear, or the failure to
pay a fine or bail installment. (PC § 1214.1(b).)
While not specifically stated in statue, it has been said that
in practice, some courts prohibit a person from appearing before
a judge to request the waiver of an assessment that was imposed
because a person failed to appear until he or she has paid the
full assessment, even if the failure to appear was because he or
she did not receive the initial notice. Under such a
circumstance, to the extent a person cannot afford to pay the
assessment, he or she cannot contest any additional assessment
or the original fine.
Under existing law, willful failure to pay a fine in full within
the time authorized by the court may lead to suspension of an
individual's driver's license until the fine is repaid, which
can last for an extended period of time. This bill establishes
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processes for a person to appear before the court to challenge
the fines and assessments, and provides for a process to remove
a hold on a defendant's driver's license upon specified
agreements being signed.
Proposed Law: This bill does the following:
Provides that the ability to post bail or pay the civil
assessment shall not be a prerequisite to filing a request
that the court vacate the assessment. Imposition or
collection of a civil assessment shall not preclude a
defendant from scheduling a court hearing on the underlying
charge.
Provides that if an agreement is signed to pay an
outstanding fine in installments, or an agreement is signed
to perform community service in lieu of the fine, as
specified, the court shall issue and file with the DMV a
certificate showing that the fine has been satisfied or
that an agreement has been signed, and request that the
license hold be lifted.
For fines that are paid in full, in addition to issuing
and filing a certificate of full payment with DMV, requires
the court to request that the license hold be lifted
(current law only requires the court to issue a
certificate).
Provides that the court shall not require the payment of
bail, the fine, or a civil assessment before the person
requests that the court vacate a civil assessment, as
specified.
Prior Legislation: SB 366 (Wright) 2013 would make numerous
changes in the Vehicle Code and Penal Code regarding provisions
the court must take into consideration when considering a
person's ability to pay a fine or civil assessment. This bill
was held on the Suspense File of this Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the court to issue a
certificate and request to DMV that a driver's license
suspension be lifted upon an agreement being signed indicating a
fine will be paid in installments, or that an agreement has been
signed to perform community service in lieu of the fine. Under
existing law courts are only required to notify the DMV when the
fine has been paid in full. This provision will require the
courts to adopt new procedures and undertake additional
notifications to the DMV, coordinate signed agreements, and
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increase collection and administrative activities associated
with payment installment and community service plans.
DMV data indicates over 520,000 licenses were suspended in 2013,
with about 11,000 licenses reinstated due to fines being paid in
full. To the extent even 10 percent of annual suspensions sign
agreements and request removal of the license suspension, the
courts would be required to issue over 52,000 certificates and
requests to DMV to lift suspensions, as well as work with
defendants to facilitate agreements.
The ability to request a driver's license suspension to be
lifted at the inception of a signed agreement will likely result
in a significantly greater number of individuals petitioning the
courts in order to secured signed agreements for payment
installment plans or the performance of community service in
lieu of payment of the fine. To the extent some portion of the
11,000 persons annually who would have otherwise paid their
fines in full opt to initiate installment plans, there would be
an ongoing delay and reduction in fine revenues collected over
time. Additionally, for some portion of the 520,000 persons who
would have otherwise paid their fines gradually but opt to
secure an agreement to perform community service, would also
result in a reduction in debt collection revenues. To the extent
the ability to secure a payment installment plan results in a
greater number of people paying their fines than otherwise would
have occurred under existing law would offset in part the
reduction in overall debt collection revenues.
The DMV has indicated its automation systems do not have the
capability to re-impose a license suspension for the non-payment
of a fine once it has been lifted. As a result, should some
percentage of the plans for installment payments or community
service fail to meet the terms of their agreements, the DMV has
no means of re-imposing the license suspensions. This could
result in significant challenges, delays, and additional
workload for the courts to seek collection of these outstanding
court-ordered debts.
The overall impact on the level of court-ordered debt collected
due to the provisions of this bill is dependent on various
factors. According to the Judicial Council Report to the
Legislature on the Statewide Collection of Court-Ordered Debt:
FY 2012-13, nearly $669 million in delinquent court-ordered debt
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was collected statewide. To the extent once percent of annual
collections are impacted by the provisions of this bill would
result in a reduction of $6.7 million, distributed between
various state and local funds including but not limited to the
General Fund, Trial Court Trust Fund, DNA Identification Fund,
State Penalty Fund, Victim Witness Assistance Fund, and the
Corrections Training Fund.
To the extent the provisions of this bill enable individuals to
successfully secure and retain employment and remain in
compliance with various program requirements, there could be
near-term increases in public assistance program costs due to
fewer sanctions, with potential future cost savings to the
extent extended dependence on public assistance programs is
reduced.