BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 366 (Wright) - Traffic fines: ability to pay.
Amended: May 14, 2013 Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 366 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. Specifically, this bill:
Requires the court to consider a defendant's ability to pay
a fine or civil assessment in all infraction cases (limited
to traffic infractions under current law).
Provides for a process for a person to challenge a civil
assessment by showing good cause for failing to appear.
Requires civil assessments to be waived or imposed at not
less than $10 and not more than $300, on a sliding scale
developed by the Judicial Council according to the
defendant's ability to pay, as specified.
Expands the population of defendants eligible to petition
the court for sentencing to perform community service in
lieu of paying a fine due to hardship to include those
convicted of a misdemeanor for a failure to appear, pay a
fine, or pay bail.
Extends the time for notice before a court imposes an
assessment or sends information to DMV to suspend a license
from 10 days to 30 days.
Provides that the court may conclusively presume that a
defendant does not have the ability to pay a fine if he or
she falls within a category of persons receiving public
benefits, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Annual costs potentially in the low millions (General
Fund*) to the courts for additional workload required for
new processes and additional hearings.
Unknown, potential ongoing loss of civil assessment fee
revenue to the courts and counties to the extent a portion
of fines and annual civil assessments to the courts and
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counties would have otherwise been collected. One percent of
annual civil assessment revenues would equate to $1.4
million.
Potential reimbursable mandate on counties for increased
duties for community service to the extent the defendants'
county of choice exceeds existing capacity.
To the extent the provisions of this bill enable persons to
retain employment and remain in compliance with various
program requirements, 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
Background: Under existing law, when a person fails to pay a
fine for an infraction, misdemeanor, or felony, the court can
impose an additional civil assessment of up to $300. Existing
law does not clearly provide a process for a person to challenge
the imposition of this assessment. Further, failure to pay a
Vehicle Code fine in full can 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
processes for a person to appear before the court to challenge
the fines and assessments, and specifies considerations to be
made by the court.
Proposed Law: See Bill Summary.
Staff Comments: The Judicial Council has indicated the
provisions of this bill mandate a number of new requirements
that would significantly increase the workload of the courts.
The provisions of this bill would require the courts to develop
a number of new processes and hold additional hearings.
Specifically, this bill requires the courts to 1) provide a
process for a defendant to appear to show good cause for failure
to appear before a civil assessment may be imposed, 2) prohibit
a court from requiring the payment of bail, a fine, or a civil
assessment before a person may request the court to vacate a
civil assessment thus requiring changes to existing processes,
3) consider the ability of a defendant to pay a civil assessment
when waiving or setting an assessment in an amount between $10
and $300, which would require courts to modify existing
processes and procedures, 4) expands the evidentiary issues
courts would need to consider when adjudicating any infraction
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and setting the amount of the assessment.
The above provisions will likely result in more individuals
petitioning the courts on the basis that they had good cause for
failing to appear or that they are unable to pay all or a
portion of a civil assessment. As a result, this bill could
result in additional hearings. The Judicial Council has
indicated numerous hearings of just fifteen minutes could result
in significant burdens on the courts. There were over 7.7
million felonies, misdemeanors and infractions, including those
related to traffic, filed in California in 2012. If just one
percent of the defendants sought to use the process to appear to
show good cause as more broadly defined in the bill, the courts
would experience additional costs in terms of hearing time of
$9.6 million (General Fund). This estimate is based on the
average cost of a day in court, which is approximately $4000,
taking into account the time of the judicial officer and
courtroom staff. Fifteen minutes of court time costs $125.
(77,000 defendants requiring 15 minutes of court time at $125).
Staff notes the number of license suspensions for failure to
appear or failure to pay has been in excess of 525,000
individuals in 2010, 2011, and 2012.
By requiring the court to consider a defendant's ability to pay
in all infraction cases, versus upon request of a defendant in
traffic infraction cases only, this provision would require the
imposition of procedures, including new motions and additional
hearings, for proceedings related to criminal infractions, at
the per hearing cost of $125 described above. As a result, this
change would require case management software modifications, new
and revised rules of court, new and revised Judicial Council
forms, and revised curricula and training for judicial officers
and court personnel. In addition, as noted above, this bill
would require civil assessments to be imposed at not less than
$10 and not more than $300, on a sliding scale according to the
defendant's ability to pay. Because the bill requires a sliding
scale, it will impact the automated processes many courts
currently use to process civil assessments and necessitate case
management software modifications. While these costs have not
been estimated, they are likely to be considerable.
This bill authorizes courts to impose a sentence of community
service in lieu of paying a civil assessment upon a showing of
an inability to pay, whereas current law authorizes courts to
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impose a sentence of community service only upon a showing that
the total fine (exclusive of the civil assessment) would pose a
hardship on the defendant or his or her family. This bill also
requires the court to determine that paying the total or a
modified fine is a hardship if the defendant falls within the
category of individual eligible to have court fees and costs
waived because of his or her financial condition and authorizes
the court to delegate the task to the clerk. These changes would
require the courts to adopt new procedures and would require the
Judicial Council to revise rules of court and forms.
This bill would also require courts to notify the Department of
Motor Vehicles when an individual signs an agreement to pay a
fine, fee, or bail in installments, or signs an agreement to
perform community service in lieu of the fine, fee or bail, to
file a certificate showing that an agreement has been signed
with the department and request the department to lift the hold
on a driver's license. Under existing law courts are only
required to notify the department when the fine or fee has been
paid. This provision will require the courts to adopt new
procedures and undertake additional notifications to the
department.
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 (i.e.,
CalWORKs and CalFresh) due to fewer sanctions, with potential
future cost savings to the extent extended dependence on public
assistance programs is reduced.
Author amendments would remove Section 1 of the bill related to
Penal Code infractions and would specify a set $50 assessment
for defendants meeting the requirements for a fee waiver.