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County hands over fines to collection agency
By Greg Cima
gcima@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- People who skipped paying court fines years ago may start receiving letters and calls. And they’ll find out they owe 30 percent more than they once did.

“In the first month or so, that money has flowed, more has come in to us directly versus coming through the collection agency,” said McLean County Circuit Clerk Sandra Parker. With a laugh, she added, “Frankly, I don’t care where the payment comes from as long as it gets paid.”

Last May, McLean County began referring its oldest outstanding debts to a collection agency. And, because of a recent change in state law, McLean County now can pass the collection agency’s fee to the people who owe money.

Before the contract with Chicago-based Harris & Harris Ltd., State’s Attorney Bill Yoder said people appeared countless times before a judge and said they couldn’t pay their fines and costs. People arrested on new charges often had no problem finding $300 to be released from jail, he said, it’s “like pulling teeth” to collect restitution from the same people.

Referring the cases to a collection agency also frees up prosecutors to work on current court cases, instead of chasing down previously ordered fines, Yoder said.

The first payments came in Sept. 1. Parker said the county has received more money than usual, but it has not been a dramatic increase.

What surprised Parker was that more people chose to pay her office, not the collection agency that contacted them.

But the extra 30 percent fee has to be paid, regardless of where the debt is paid.

The clerk’s office has received 66 payments totaling just less than $10,000, Parker said. The largest payment was $831; the smallest was $6.55.

“I would guess that probably a big chunk of it is stuff that the state’s attorney would have decided not to chase,” Parker said.

Any felony, misdemeanor or traffic case with unpaid debts from before January 2003 was referred to the collection agency, Parker said. Cases from January 2003 to November 2005 were referred to the state’s attorney’s office to determine whether to send them out for collections, she said.

“The beauty of this program is that it doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything to administer,” Parker said, because the collection agency’s fee is tacked onto the amount paid by the scofflaw.

Once before, the county contracted with a collection agency, Parker said, but the referrals were more work, the warnings amounted to increasingly nasty letters and the county paid for the agency’s services.

Logan County Circuit Clerk Carla Bender said her county used an agency and received about $26,000 that otherwise would not have been collected. Those cases involved debts that dated to 1988, she said.

Bender said Logan County only refers traffic cases to the collection agency. Arrest warrants can be issued if someone fails to pay in a criminal case.

Some other agencies offered to collect for Logan County, Bender said, but they would’ve charged up to 40 percent of the money retrieved.

Bender didn’t know how much the current agency charges.

James Gilbert, director of government affairs for Harris & Harris, said about 40 Illinois counties are working with collection agencies to collect unpaid financial penalties.

“Often times, the county lacks the resources to pursue some of the smaller dollar amounts and offenders because there’s just more serious matters going on, violent crime, domestic crime and that sort of thing,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said some debts were aging without repayment, and people had moved to other jurisdictions.

“We have the resources to locate those people very quickly,” Gilbert said, adding his company can find current addresses, phone numbers and employers of the people that owe money.

Gilbert said cases typically referred to his company involve misdemeanors and traffic offenses. He said prosecutors haven’t referred any cases he thought would give his company trouble.

Collections by the numbers

Since Sept. 1, the McLean County began receiving payments on unpaid fines referred to a collection agency. Some numbers to emerge from the switch are:

66 payments received.

$10,000 is a little more than the amount received so far.

$831 is the largest payment received.

$6.50 is the smallest.

30 percent of the unpaid fine is the additional amount that must be paid by the scofflaw.

SOURCE: McLean County circuit clerk’s office

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Motorists and others who don't pay their fines may face a collection agency as local governments look to collect money owed them. (Pantagraph/Proeber)
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Reader comments on this story - 9 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

i think.... wrote on Oct 23, 2006 8:43 PM:

" it serves them right to pay 30% more. maybe there are some cases that the people really cant aford to pay the fine, but come one, even 5$ a month is making a atempt, i think the majority just dont want to bother. i like the point made, you cant afford to pay previous fines, but you can afford bail the next time you are arrested. i think it should just be a made manditory that if your arrested and have previous fines that you have not paid on in a certain amount of time you dont get bail granted to you. "

Why wrote on Oct 23, 2006 10:34 AM:

" use a Chicago collection agency when AFNI is right in Bloomington? Keep the work in town, it helps with the local economy. "

to maybe wrote on Oct 23, 2006 9:38 AM:

" Not just parking tickets all sorts of fines for criminal charges. Just take a quick scroll on the mclean.gov and go to Public Access. You can see the number of folks who have a lot of unpaid fines that nobody has bothered to collect. "

to Bill Collectors wrote on Oct 23, 2006 9:29 AM:

" have you read your post...what are you trying to say? It is the biggest rambling non-sensical thing that I have ever seen posted on these blogs. Dude, it's called Prozac and it works. "

Bill collectors should proceed at their own risk wrote on Oct 23, 2006 7:27 AM:

" Bill collectors should proceed at their own risk. They should not allow their greed glands to overtake and pass their good judgment. Instead, they should seek advice from counsel as to their potential exposure to suit for unfair and deceptive trade practices, common law fraud, and RICO (Racketeering). Such suits can and will come out of their attempt to collect legally invalid/insufficient debts, void judgments and voidable judgments. Just a word to the wise: some debts are valid, while others are not. Be wise! "

Maybe Just Maybe wrote on Oct 23, 2006 6:05 AM:

" There in jail, or in the service over seas or just dont have it. I thought when you were find you had to pay or do time. Has it changed or are we talking parking tickets. If so boot lock wheels til they pay up. "

Surprised? wrote on Oct 23, 2006 12:38 AM:

" I don't know why Sandra Parker would be surprised that more people prefer to pay her office than to pay a collection agency. Regardless of the 30 percent fee that is charged, I would think a lot of people would feel if they paid it directly to her office, they KNOW her office received the money. People don't trust collection agencies -PERIOD. Anyone who has ever paid a collection agency only to be told several years later by the original creditor that they never were paid, knows what I'm talking about. "

kickback wrote on Oct 22, 2006 11:23 PM:

" Wonder who will be getting the kick-backs from this! Guess it might go to help pay Pelo's wages. "

doh wrote on Oct 22, 2006 10:48 PM:

" about time! "
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