A commission set up by the state legislature is taking a holistic look at how the state’s court system is funded, with a focus on whether the system is overly dependent on fines and fees assessed on indigent defendants convicted of crimes.
The Louisiana Commission on Justice System Funding could call for a major restructuring of how revenues are dedicated for court operations. Currently, local courts make decisions on assessing fines and fees to fund their operations, but a June 15 consultant’s report to the commission noted that four states in recent years have shifted to state-funded or centrally administered trial courts.
One key reason the panel was formed was to investigate whether the imposition of fees, restitution, fines and other financial obligations placed on indigent defendants in the criminal system is a deterrent for those offenders trying to re-enter society, according to a Louisiana House resolution on the work of the commission.
The panel is currently collecting data on how the more than 1,100 courts in the state are funded and whether differences in fine imposition policies are leading to unequal justice among the jurisdictions.
Sarah Whittington, staff attorney for the Justice and Accountability Center in New Orleans, noted that civil court operations also depend on local fees.
“All clerks' offices are funded through filing fees and some have other local government revenue streams, but that's not many of them,” Whittington told the Louisiana Record. “The clerk's association is always quick to point out that they are not funded through any state appropriation or tax revenue.”
Those supporting systemic changes in the way the courts are funded see increasing state support for court operations as a way to improve consistency by standardizing such issues as salaries, collections fee payments and oversight of court-approved damages awards.
Vanessa Spinazola, executive director of the Justice and Accountability Center, said that courts ultimately need to make an ability-to-pay determination before assigning fines and fees on criminal defendants.
“I think a lot of the courts realized that a lot of the people they are cycling through are poor,” Spinazola told the Louisiana Record. “They don’t collect a lot of these fines and fees now.”
The financial burden of such fees can also keep defendants from recovering their driver’s licenses and moving on with their lives, she said.
Louisiana’s fee-dependent courts have sparked a number of civil rights lawsuits in recent years that challenged the idea that judges or court administrators should be able to assess fees for their operating costs.