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    April 27, 2023

    Court Fees and Fines

    Ensuring constitutional and nondiscriminatory practices

    The DOJ Letter incorporates many of the provisions included in the ABA Guidelines, and we applaud DOJ’s important message to the courts.

    The DOJ Letter incorporates many of the provisions included in the ABA Guidelines, and we applaud DOJ’s important message to the courts.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a Dear Colleague Letter to Courts Regarding Fines and Fees for Youth and Adults (Letter) on April 20. The Letter cautions courts to refrain from engaging in “practices that may be unlawful, unfairly penalize individuals who are unable to pay or otherwise have a discriminatory effect”.  It also identifies the possible civil rights violations, public policy concerns, and federal financial obligations that could come from discriminatory imposition of fines and fees.

    In 2018, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted policy developed by the ABA Task Force on Building Public Trust in the American Justice System that urges all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal legislative, judicial and other governmental bodies to apply the ABA Ten Guidelines on Court Fines and Fees (Guidelines). The purpose of the Guidelines is to help ensure that fines and fees are fairly imposed and administered by the justice system so that individuals will not be put in jail or otherwise punished for the “crime” of living in poverty.

    The DOJ Letter incorporates many of the provisions included in the ABA Guidelines, and we applaud DOJ’s important message to the courts. Director of DOJ’s Office for Access to Justice Rachel Rossi summarized the problem and why it must be resolved by stating that “Obligations to satisfy fines and fees have a devastating effect on adults and youth who are experiencing poverty and other economic adversities, trapping many in an unending cycle of poverty and debt. . . These obligations can also interfere with full and fair access to our justice system.”

    Director Rossi also recently delivered remarks at the 2023 American Bar Association Public Defense Summit, and named Nikhil Ramnaney as the new Office for Access to Justice Senior Counsel who will serve in a position dedicated to support for state and local public defense. The ABA looks forward to monitoring the impact of this new position as an important investment in identifying challenges and making improvements to public defense nationwide.

    Follow us @ABAGrassroots to learn more about these issues and other significant policy developments as they occur.

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