Costs and Consequences of Traffic Fines and Fees: A Case Study of Open Warrants in Las Vegas, Nevada

Traffic stops and tickets often have far-reaching consequences for poor and marginalized communities, yet resulting fines and fees increasingly fund local court systems. This paper critically explores who bears the brunt of traffic fines and fees in Nevada, historically one of the fastest growing and increasingly diverse states in the nation, and one of thirteen US states to prosecute minor traffic violations as criminal misdemeanors rather than civil infractions. Drawing on legislative histories, we find that state legislators in Nevada increased fines and fees to raise revenues. Using descriptive statistics to analyze the 2012–2020 open arrest warrants extracted from the Las Vegas Municipal Court, we find that 58.6% of all open warrants are from failure to pay tickets owing to administrative-related offenses—vehicle registration and maintenance, no license or plates, or no insurance. Those issued warrants for failure to pay are disproportionately for people who are Black and from the poorest areas in the region. Ultimately, the Nevada system of monetary traffic sanctions criminalizes poverty and reinforces racial disparities.

RULE OF LAW CONCERNS IN THE CROATIAN PENAL ORDER PROCEDURE LINKED TO DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY, JUDICIAL CONTROL, ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE AND PROCEDURAL RIGHTS

The paper analyses the mechanism of a penal order as a consensual procedure aimed at relieving the criminal justice system in cases of minor criminal offences by avoiding a trial. The study aims to analyse the Croatian normative framework and case law in order to determine the distinctive traits of the penal order procedure in a comparative legal context, disclose the procedural reality and detect its shortcomings. The paper focuses on the substantive and procedural requirements for the issuing of a penal order, the judicial control of the indictment requesting a penal order, the defence rights in the proceedings before the issuing of a penal order and the position of the victim. These key elements were researched through normative, theoretical and comparative analysis of German, Austrian, Italian and French law and conclusions were tested in the case law of the Municipal Criminal Court in Zagreb and the Municipal Court in Split. The results of the research reveal that the expansion of the application of the penal order to graver offences punishable by five years of imprisonment and to more severe penalties such as deprivation of liberty, as well as deviations from some fundamental criminal procedural principles inherent in the penal order procedure, raise the question of providing adequate procedural guarantees for the defendant and the victim.

Making Masters Moral: Household Subordinates and Upward Social Discipline in Late Medieval Basel

This article examines how late medieval non-nuclear household relationships shaped the pursuit of honorable social status. It examines in detail several witness depositions from the Basel municipal court (Schultheissengericht) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. Historians have long noted the concern of householders to regulate the morality of their servants and apprentices. However, the study will demonstrate that subordinates could and did defend their own household honor by policing the morality of their masters and other household members, both through verbal shaming and through the distinctive strategic option of refusing to work. The importance of subordinates as arbiters of honorable status was recognized and exploited by individual masters, guilds, and courts; in the region around Basel, it could even be formalized in the written genre of a Schelmbrief (shame-document). Social discipline was not simply a question of householder-masters controlling their subordinates, but also the reverse.

The Influence of Defendant Race/Ethnicity and Police Body-Worn Cameras on Traffic Case Processing

The current study evaluates the impact of defendant race/ethnicity and police body-worn cameras (BWCs) on dismissals and guilty pleas in traffic violations. Despite the frequency of traffic violations and the potential for racial/ethnic bias in these incidents, researchers have yet to examine the outcomes of these violations in court. Research is also needed to assess the potential for BWCs to provide evidence and reduce charging disparities and differential pleas for minority defendants. Traffic violations processed in the Tempe, Arizona Municipal Court before and after BWC deployment were examined using logistic regression. Black and Hispanic defendants were less likely to have their violations dismissed than White defendants, regardless of the presence of a BWC. Hispanic defendants were significantly more likely to plead guilty to traffic violations than White defendants, and BWCs did not eliminate this disparity. BWCs did significantly reduce the likelihood of a guilty plea for Black and White defendants, but the finding was not robust to the inclusion of an interaction term between race and BWCs. BWCs did not significantly moderate the impact of defendant race/ethnicity on either dismissals or guilty pleas. Overall, the results suggest that BWCs have little impact on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in traffic violation processing.

Codifying Credit: Everyday Contracting and the Spread of the Civil Code in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Between the 1870s and the 1910s, municipal court officials in southernmost Mexico recorded contracts regarding small debts and credits in what they labeled libros de conocimientos. While only very rarely citing Mexico's new civil codes of the 1870s and 1880s, the contracts contained in these registers regularly engaged with the kinds of agreements, guarantees, and enforcement mechanisms laid out in the code. They also capture an active, if still elusive, quotidian credit market for the far from well-to-do. This article uses these registers to trace the creation and evolution of Mexico's civil code from the periphery of the country rather than its center. By looking at the ways farmers, smalltime merchants, housewives, and laborers made use of its forms and norms, we can see how liberal economic policy permeated society through use. The determination of everyday people to make good on the protections and possibilities of liberalized fiscal policy cemented that policy in everyday practice.

An Analysis of Court Imposed Monetary Sanctions in Seattle Municipal Courts, 2000-2017.

In what follows we provide a detailed analysis of the scope of fines and fees sentenced and collected by Seattle Municipal Court through 2000-2017. In sum, we present the following key findings from our data analysis:1. There has been a remarkable decline in cases filed in Seattle Municipal Courts between 2000 – 2017, even as the population size of Seattle increased during this time period.2. People sentenced to criminal traffic cases tended to have their LFO accounts open (not fully paid) for longer periods of time relative to other types of traffic cases.3. For each class of case, Black men and women are significantly more likely than their peers to be sentenced to incarceration through a Washington superior court following a paid Seattle Municipal Court legal financial obligation sentence (SMC LFO).4. Black men and women are more likely to be incarcerated following an unpaid SMC LFO than are any other racial or ethnic group.5. People of color have a higher likelihood than White people to be charged with a DWLS3 following a Seattle Municipal Court legal financial obligation sentence. This is especially pronounced for Black Seattle drivers.

El derecho a la libre prestación de servicios o libre circulación de capitales en la Unión Europea vs. la protección del consumidor nacional croata a la luz del asunto C-630/17 Anica Milivojević vs. Raiffeisenbank St. Stefan-Jagerberg-Wolfsberg Egen = The right to free provision of services or free movement of capital in the european union vs. the protection of the Croatian national consumer in the context of the case C-630/17 Anica Milivojević vs. Raiffeisenbank St. Stefan-Jagerberg-Wolfsberg Egen

Resumen: En el presente trabajo se analiza el impacto que ha tenido la Ley de nulidad de los contratos de préstamo con elementos internacionales celebrados en la República de Croacia con un acreedor no autorizado y su confrontación con la normativa europea. Esto se realiza a través de las cuestiones prejudiciales planteadas por un Tribunal municipal croata sobre la afectación del derecho a la libre prestación de servicios y libre circulación de capitales en la Unión Europea; alteración de los fueros competenciales, extensión del concepto de consumidor a empresarios y la concepción de los derechos reales.Palabras clave: Derecho a la libre prestación de servicios, Reglamento 1215/2012, defensa de los consumidores y derecho real de hipoteca.Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of the Law on the nullity of loan contracts with international elements entered into in the Republic of Croatia with an unauthorised creditor and its confrontation with European regulations. This is done through prejudicial questions raised by a Croatian Municipal Court on the effect of the right to the free provision of services and free movement of capital in the European Union; alteration of the jurisdictional privileges, extension of the concept of consumer to entrepreneurs and the conception of mortgage rights. Keywords: Right to freedom to provide services, Regulation 1215/2012, consumer protection and mortgage liem.

Cambodia will work to ease impact of trade sanctions

Subject EU trade sanctions on Cambodia. Significance The European Commission last week said the EU will partially suspend Cambodia’s trade preferences with the bloc in response to human rights violations such as political repression under Prime Minister Hun Sen's government. Meanwhile, Kem Sokha, co-founder of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), is on trial in a Phnom Penh municipal court for treason, a charge he denies. Impacts Cambodia’s dependence on Chinese aid and investment will likely increase. Phnom Penh will continue to express solidarity with Beijing over the coronavirus crisis, hoping to strengthen bilateral ties. Hun Sen’s government may implement structural economic reforms as part of efforts to sustain economic growth.