More than 53,000 accounts have been sent to a private collection firm by the Hamilton County Criminal Clerk’s office in an effort to get people to pay their debts to the Criminal Court.
“When COVID hit, we stopped sending them to collections,” Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean told the Chattanooga Times Free Press by phone Thursday. “Everybody was in a bind, so we decided to not send them to collections.”
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The delinquent accounts have been sent to the private firm Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins & Mott LLP, Dean said.
There are 141 court fees and taxes ranging from 50 cents to $3,000 depending on the court type, according Tennessee law. Criminal court fees are higher than those in General Sessions Court.
“Our office takes the state-mandated issue of collecting court-ordered fines seriously,” Dean said in a Thursday news release.
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“However, we do realize that in today’s economic environment it can be difficult to fulfill your obligations,” Dean said in the release. “Our staff is very sympathetic to the difficult times that many of our customers face, and for that reason, we are more than willing to work with each and every person that is willing to put forth a valid effort.”
Dean said the only way an account is closed is by death.
“I got an email from an individual that had an account that was 33 years old,” Dean said. “When I checked it, I saw that sure enough, he hadn’t paid. He owed about $500.”
According to Dean, some of the accounts owe up to $100,000 and, with only six people in the delinquent collections division at the clerk’s office, it’s hard to keep track of all the accounts.
“We want people to pay their fines, we don’t want to put them in a bind,” Dean said. “All we want to do is have people pay at least $25 a month.”
Dean said the office sent the accounts to a firm and not a collection agency to ensure those who owed responded to the letters.
“My biggest reason for doing this is because in today’s society, people aren’t sure if you’re legit or not,” Dean said. “People are more likely to respond to a letter from an attorney’s office than from a collection agency.”
Officials are trying to work with people’s budget while trying to ensure their debt to the court is paid.
“We know they’re at their lowest already … some by accident, some by bad decisions … but we have a mandate,” Dean said. “State law says that we have to collect these costs, so we have to follow the state law, and it’s not just our court that these funds go to … there’s probably 200 different agencies and organizations that we collect for.”
According to Dean, the fines go to several agencies that work with the court system and provide resources to those dealing with the criminal justice system in some way.
Millions of dollars are owed to the Hamilton County Criminal Court, according to Dean, who said court officials are willing to take the lowest monthly payment in order to ensure those who owe are on track to paying their debt to the court.
“All we want them to do is to be regular, and make regular payments with us,” Dean said. “We’ll take payments as low as $25 a month. We think that’s more than fair.”
The accounts sent to the firm are accounts from the Criminal Court Division only, according to Dean, who said General Sessions Court accounts will soon be sent to the firm for collections as well.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.