Wait for restitution can be long for some Pennsylvania victims
Last week, Liza Lotz sent a check for about $850 to a Cabot man whose truck was stolen 30 years ago.
“We found him, and he remembered the whole thing,” Lotz said. As Butler County's clerk of courts, it's her job to collect court-ordered penalties from defendants and transmit them to government agencies and crime victims.
“Sometimes it's years later if they've done any jail time,” she said. “Even when they get off probation and they still owe money, we're still collecting money from the defendants.”
Last year, Pennsylvania counties distributed $455 million in court fees, fines and restitution to government agencies and crime victims. About half the money went back to the commonwealth, $157 million went to counties and $51 million to municipalities.
Victims received $35.3 million worth of restitution.
Though relatively flat during the previous year, the money represents just a portion of outstanding court-ordered fines. A February 2013 report from the Restitution in Pennsylvania Task Force found nearly $2.3 billion in outstanding fees, fines and restitutions, including $170 million in Allegheny County, $22 million in Butler County and nearly $63 million in Westmoreland County.
Steve Schell, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, said fines levied by magisterial courts are typically collected and disbursed in the same year. At the Common Pleas level, payments are usually larger and arrive more slowly. Defendants might be incarcerated, delaying the payments further, Schell said.
“There might be millions of dollars in restitution ordered,” Schell said. “A lot of times, it's not paid back in five, 10, 15 years.”
The state collected 96 percent of all magisterial court fines assessed in 2007, the most recent year the office is tracking, and 50 percent of all Common Pleas assessments.
Bryan Kline, Westmoreland County's clerk of courts, who served on the Restitution in Pennsylvania Task Force, said he requires all defendants to appear at an administrative hearing. If they fail to show up or stick to a payment plan, they're found in contempt of court.
“It's about holding these people accountable,” Kline said.
In July, the county instituted a policy to deduct 20 percent from inmate bank accounts toward outstanding court debts, modeled after a state program. Each month has returned between $8,000 and $10,000, Kline said.
In Butler County, clerks can file civil judgments, suspend driver's licenses and partner with parole officers or local law enforcement to collect from defendants, Lotz said.
Counties are seeing more payments trickle in through a three-year-old online payment service called PAePay. Courts received $62 million worth of fees, fines and restitution from online payments in 2013, up from $49 million the year before.
More than $12.8 million in payments were from Western Pennsylvania.
“Each year, its use increases significantly, and we expect it to increase again this year,” Schell said.
Melissa Daniels is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-8511 or mdaniels@tribweb.com.
