New Law Could Make it Harder for Lewis County Courts to Collect Fees, Fines

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A state law passed earlier this year revamping the assessment and collection of mandatory legal fees imposed on people convicted of a crime has some county officials contemplating how this may result in the loss of court-funding revenue, and judges saying goodbye to a sentencing option.

House Bill 1783, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on March 27, prohibits individuals from being incarcerated for failing to make payments on their court-imposed legal financial obligations (LFO), restricts courts from imposing interest on fees other than restitution and alters who courts may impose certain costs on.

“I’m not sure the legislature, when they enacted the new law, has considered or put into place a plan to fund the courts in absence of those monies that will not be assessed and collected,” said Lewis County Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee.

The law drew acclaim from the Washington Chapter of the ACLU, with Staff Attorney Prachi Dave saying in a statement: “This law ensures a person’s ability to pay is considered when LFOs are imposed, and enables people with limited resources who have served their time to move on with their lives. No one should serve jail time simply because they are too poor to pay a fine or fee.”

Toynbee said that, among the gamut of changes to established methods of imposing and collecting LFOs, HB 1783 requires a judge to determine whether a convicted person is indigent at the time of the sentencing.

“Whereas before that time, it was really done kind of on the back end. We would assess a person’s ability to pay when the Clerk’s Office was trying to get them to pay. That’s when the court would say whether they could or could not pay,” said Toynbee.

One of the changes of HB 1783 is that judges no longer may impose certain fees on people convicted of crimes if they’re considered indigent, while they used to be imposed at a judge’s discretion.

Lewis County Clerk Scott Tinney said the county coffers haven’t felt the effects of the legislation quite yet, as the law is still pretty new. In the third quarter of 2018, the clerk’s office reported $101,301 paid into accounts from LFOs. 

He estimated that will see a steady decline, as people sentenced prior to HB 1783 wrap up paying off their financial obligations.

While the overall average dollar figure assigned to every person convicted of a crime in Lewis County would be a difficult figure to tally, cases randomly selected by Tinney show decreasing amounts in LFOs.

Three selected felony cases from 2016 include total imposed costs of $2,200, $2,300 and $2,500. Five randomly selected felony cases ending with a conviction in Oct. 2018 most frequently show imposed LFOs of either $500 or $600 — primarily because of victim assessment fees. The only exception being one total bill of $4,115 — entirely wrapped up in victim fees and restitution. Restitution and fees paid directly to victims were left unaffected by HB 1783.

Tinney said that so far this year approximately 90 percent of people charged in criminal cases are indigent, meaning they are not able to pay for defense or their court fees. While the exact figure would require going through every single case one by one, Tinney said it’s safe to say an overwhelming majority are classified as indigent.

District Court Judge R.W. Buzzard said during an interview with the Chronicle that the legislation means he can’t impose costs — whether they be to pay for jail time, jury fees or other costs accrued throughout a case — at the time of sentencing if the convicted person is found indigent. For him, it’s another sentencing option off the table.

“There’s lots of different ways of looking at what happened. I know one way is, ‘Well, you’ve cut off the revenue stream, and who’s going to pay for our justice system if the users aren’t going to.’ To be honest with you as a judge, that’s not my concern. Being a revenue generator — not my concern. My concern is holding people accountable and hopefully helping them not repeat their behavior that got them in there in the first place,” he said.

Washington law dictates that money accrued through costs are split between the state and county funds.

Judicial officers met with county commissioners in September to discuss how the law might affect the Lewis County Courthouse and its operations. The conversation had a couple consistent undertones: The law eliminates one major source of funding without providing other means of making up the difference, and, two judges present at the meeting believe, takes away a means of punishing crime.

“If we find that they qualify for court-appointed counsel, then that almost completely closes the door to us being able to assess legal financial obligations other than basically … restitution,” said Toynbee.

Additionally, Buzzard said, he isn’t able to consider someone’s likelihood to be able to pay costs in the near future — if they’re indigent at the time of sentencing, the discussion is over, he said.

Toynbee said he feels the new legislation doesn’t send a positive message.

“To me, the message to them is that we believe you can do this, we believe you can reenter society, we believe you can support yourself and be accountable. But I’m not even allowed to tell them that. I feel like the message that I’m sending somebody is we don’t believe in you,” said Toynbee.

Buzzard, during the recent Legislative Round Table at the Lewis County Courthouse, invited legislators to, quite literally, join him on the bench for a day sometime in the future.

He said he hopes the process will allow them to see the courtroom from his perspective. They’ll be sworn in for the day, and will see the information he has access to on his monitors while hearing cases — including criminal history and accrued fines.

“That’s the whole point of a penalty — to curb your future behavior,” he said, adding later: “Every time you’re writing that $25 a month check, you’re remembering why not to do what you did in the first place. It’s a nice friendly reminder every month why you’re not going to do it again.”