March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Fine-collection effort paying off > Courts hope to make dent in $4 million owed to state

An effort to collect some of the $4 million in unpaid court fines is paying off, according to Robert L. Freeman, deputy state court administrator of finance.

Freeman said the Administrative Office of the Courts expected to recover about $500,000 in unpaid fines as the result of a special mass mailing project. “We have a very ambitious program. It has been very successful,” he said.

Freeman estimated that outstanding court fines of between $60,000 and $100,000 had been paid as the result of a mass mailing of about 15,000 letters in December. He said between 3,000 and 4,000 of the letters were returned saying the people no longer resided at that address. “That is just the type we want to get at because now we have methods to locate those people.”

The project is about 50 percent completed. Freeman said another mass mailing would go out this month.

He said, “Roughly speaking, in two sample courts, 200 unpaid fines have yielded 40 payments totaling over $5,000. Assuming these sample courts are truly representative, and if we were to conduct a large mailing for all the recent unpaid fines for the entire state, we are dealing with 20,000 cases less than 1 year (old) totaling $2.5 million and 16,000 cases totaling $2.1 million that are 1 year or older.”

Freeman estimated the mass mailing cost $12,000 for postage.

The letter sent to people who owe the courts money indicates the amount due and states, “This money must be paid immediately.” The letter tells people that their driver’s license could be suspended, an arrest warrant could be issued, notice could be made to a credit reporting agency, wages could be attached, and fine money could be withheld from their state income tax refund, if the fine or fines are not paid.


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