Understanding the Burden of Legal Financial Obligations on Indigent Washingtonians

In criminal courts across the country, judges assess a variety of fines, fees and other legal financial obligations (LFOs) that many defendants struggle to pay. This paper examines the disproportionate burden that fine and fee assessment and collection practices impose on low-income, system-involved individuals, using administrative court data for criminal cases filed in Washington’s courts of limited jurisdiction between 2015 and 2020. The authors find that the majority of defendants do not or only partially pay their LFOs, but that these observations are more pronounced for indigent defendants. The authors also find that, of defendants who fully pay off their fines and fees, individuals with a public defender satisfy their debt after a greater number of days, as compared to individuals with private counsel. This is all in spite of public defender defendants generally being assessed smaller amounts in fines and fees at the outset. Additionally, the authors uncover that when defendants do pay off all of their fines and fees, they tend to do so on the day of assessment, with the likelihood of satisfying full payment generally decreasing as time goes on. These findings suggest that many people struggle with criminal justice debt, but that this problem disproportionately impacts indigent Washingtonians, subjecting them to a greater possibility of harm through the various methods of collections enforcement.

Analysis of the Impact of Non-Performing Loans on the Performance of Banking Work in Light of the Corona Pandemic (An Applied Study of A Sample of Banks Operating in the City of Erbil for the Year 2020)

The research aims to know the impact of the spread of the Corona pandemic on the financial ability of borrowers and thus to identify their willingness to pay their financial obligations towards banks، and an attempt to present through this research appropriate proposals to address bad debts in banks operating in the city of Erbil. A default in loans affected commercial banks in the first place، because they are quick to profit due to the high interest rates in them، compared to banks in other fields، including agricultural، industrial، specialized، and Islamic. In addition to the interest of major merchants in the region to activate their commercial operations through commercial banks. The research concluded by presenting a number of proposals، including: The commercial banks should verify the actual verification of the borrower's ability to repay his loan، especially the verification of the existence of additional surplus income. As well as working to focus on disclosure and transparency between banks by providing information on customers who are unable to pay and limiting the volume of their dealings with banks، in order to avoid and analyze the phenomenon of financial default that banks are exposed to، especially under the circumstances of the Corona pandemic.

Legal Financial Obligations and Probation: Findings from the 1995 Survey of Adults on Probation

During the late 20th century, imprisonment rates in the United States saw unprecedented growth, leading correctional systems across the country to face widespread overcrowding and underfunding. Subsequently, policy makers sought out alternatives to incarceration for certain categories of offenses. Community supervision, such as probation, emerged as a popular solution to both reduce prison and jail populations as well as to generate revenue to fund the rapidly expanding legal system. With the rise in community supervision came increases in the number of people on probation for lower-level and non-violent offenses. The expansion of legal financial obligations (LFO) placed additional burdens on these persons, who disproportionately sit in lower socio-economic status brackets. Using data from the 1995 Survey of Adults on Probation (SAP), the current study adds to the literature on probation and LFOs in an important way. The SAP data contain information on the amount, frequency, and type of LFO. Thus, this paper examines the distinct types of LFOs to determine the differential burden that each type of LFO has on people on probation. This paper finds that of all types of fees, those associated with victim restitution are most likely to lead to missed payments, while those that generate revenues do not contribute significantly to missed payments. This paper discusses the implications of this for procedural justice and fairness.

Effects of Paying Restitution

This chapter examines whether paying economic sanctions is related to recidivism. Because criminal offenders generally have few assets and limited income, paying financial obligations in addition to living expenses is likely to be difficult and may lead to criminal activity. Alternatively, paying economic sanctions could decrease crime because making payments voluntarily could lead to a sense of internalized responsibility. The chapter reviews the author’s correlational studies presented in earlier chapters indicating restitution payment is negatively related to committing a new crime, as well as research by others on adults and juveniles showing that paying restitution is associated with lower subsequent criminal behavior. It then presents a recidivism follow-up of the offenders who participated in the field experiment discussed in Chapter 5. Results indicated that payment was related to less criminal behavior, a conclusion in which researchers can have some confidence because participants had originally been assigned to condition at random.

Who Pays? Measuring Differences in the Process of Repayment of Legal Financial Obligations

This study identifies the correlates of legal financial obligation (LFO) debt repayment among persons sentenced to probation and transferred to a specialized collections unit. Using bivariate tests and logistic regression, results indicate that starting balance amounts, monthly payment amounts, and enforcement actions (capias warrant) are the strongest influences on the likelihood of full debt repayment. These results indicate that some persons will struggle to repay their LFO balances if amounts assessed are in excess of their means, even in an institutional context adopting an individualized, flexible, and non-punitive approach to collections. Policy implications suggest a need for reform at the point of LFO assessment to avoid imposing obligations that are unreasonable to individuals’ ability to repay.

Assessing Financial Well-Being and Awareness to Prevent Financial Frauds – A Study Based on Kolkata

Financial well-being refers to a person's ability to satisfy present and future financial obligations, to feel confident about their economic situation, and to make decisions that allow them to enjoy life. Financial fraud is also a serious problem that has far-reaching implications in the banking industry, government, business, and for everyday people. This study is mainly focused to measure the financial well-being of the individuals and identifying the demographic variations on the basis of it. Further this study is also intended to gauge the association between financial well-being of an individual and his awareness regarding the financial frauds as in this digital era financial fraud is a very is one of the major obstacles which a person has to face in his daily life.

The role of a mediator in real property disputes

Being one of alternative forms of legal disputes resolution, mediation is an institution which is becoming more and more popular as its use increases statistically. In practice, mediation is used mainly in civil law disputes, however, the legislators have introduced normative solutions in almost every branch of law to enable the use of this solution if the parties so desire. One of the areas where mediation can be used is also real property disputes. The subject of those disputes will most often be issues related to the mutual performance of financial obligations, although they may also apply to administrative matters. A mediator will play a special role in resolving real property disputes. It is the mediation procedure, well-organized and properly conducted by the mediator, that might determine whether the parties would reach an agreement and make a settlement, or whether no agreement would be attainable. Therefore, it is of essence that mediation proceedings, particularly in real property disputes, are conducted by mediators who not only have conciliation skills, but also extensive legal knowledge, so as not to miss any chance for conflict resolution. Therefore, in the article, the authors drew attention to the essence of mediation, and in particular the role of a mediator in resolving real property disputes

An Assessment of Prisoner Reentry, Legal Financial Obligations and Family Financial Support: A Focus on Fathers

Scholars have found that family support is an important facilitator of successful reentry from prison to the community. At the same time, they have argued that owing court-ordered fines or fees, also called legal financial obligations (LFOs), can act as an additional barrier to reentry, especially for parents. There remains a need to test how LFOs impact the financial support formerly incarcerated parents receive from their families. The current study responds to this gap by employing logistic regression analyses of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data to test whether owing court fees is associated with formerly incarcerated fathers’ (1) perceptions of available financial support from family and (2) receipt of financial support from family. We find that owing court fees is not associated with perceptions of available financial support. However, owing court fees has a positive, statistically significant association with receiving financial support from family during the first three months after prison release. This relationship remains after accounting for whether the person owes child support or sees their children monthly. Our results suggest that LFOs may create a greater need for financial support among formerly incarcerated fathers, making the financial challenges of reentry a consequence not just for those who were incarcerated but for their loved ones as well.