Sign-ups available to get help seeking relief from Pierce County court debt
A nonprofit is signing people up for clinics throughout the year to help with a streamlined process to seek relief from Pierce County court debt.
One thousand people signed up for the county’s first Legal Financial Obligation Reconsideration Day in 2019. Participants met with volunteer attorneys at the courthouse and went before a judge to have thousands of dollars in discretionary fees waived.
A 2015 state Supreme Court decision emphasized that judges must consider whether a defendant has the ability to pay discretionary legal financial obligations before imposing them.
Now Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers and other groups are organizing clinics this year to help others seek that relief.
“One thing we have noticed with LFO work, we have started doing weekly outreach directly into homeless camps, and what we’re seeing is that so many people, so many unhoused individuals that we meet on the street, have legal financial obligations ...,” said Carly Roberts, executive director of Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers.
Many have lost their driver’s license as a result of those infractions, fines and fees, she said.
There’s a link, Roberts said, between legal financial obligations and not having stable housing.
“It’s just pervasive,” she said. “People have this debt, they can’t afford it, they lose their homes.”
If they do have the ability to get into a home, she said, the housing provider might not accept them as a result of their outstanding debt.
“Those who are unable to pay their LFOs have difficulty obtaining jobs and housing, perpetuating the inequity in our community which has a disproportionate impact on people of color and populations which are underserved, underrepresented and vulnerable, adding to the homeless crisis,” the nonprofit said in a news release about the LFO clinics.
Based on information clients provide when they sign up, lawyers will prepare the necessary paperwork to reduce or waive their LFOs where possible. Then they’ll meet with the client at a clinic appointment. Afterward they’ll take the paperwork to a judge ex-parte, which means the client won’t need to be present in court.
Roberts said LFO Intake Days scheduled for April 17 and May 1 are full. In addition to Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers, those events are being held by Arms Around You, Monarch Consulting LLC, R.I.S.E. Center and Northwest Community Bail Fund, she said, with help from prosecutors and judges in Pierce County Superior Court, District Court and Municipal Court.
Roberts said people can still sign-up now to get an appointment at one of the clinics later in the year — though she said appointments aren’t guaranteed and that there might be a waiting period.
“We will keep that information and do the best that we can to schedule people,” she said.
For more information, email outreach@tacomaprobono.org.
