‘Perpetual debt.’ WA lawsuit targets court practice of sending unpaid fees to collections
Pierce County’s practice of referring court debt to collections agencies violates the constitutional rights of those who can’t afford to pay, a recently filed class action alleges.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Eddie Lemmon, a 56-year-old Tacoma man, and others in situations similar to his.
It said Lemmon was incarcerated when Pierce County told him his debt was going to a collection agency. That debt has more than doubled in the decade since.
The ACLU of Washington and the Terrell Marshall Law Group filed the lawsuit Monday in Thurston County Superior Court on behalf of people who are indigent, have legal financial obligations related to their criminal cases in Pierce County superior or district courts, and whose accounts are sent to collections.
It seeks injunctions to keep Pierce County from sending such accounts to collections agencies without first determining a person’s ability to pay, and to keep Pierce County from enforcing “charges and interest” that resulted from sending the accounts of indigent people to collections.
“The county assesses a collection fee between 18 and 23 percent and has previously authorized interest on the LFOs (legal financial obligations) at 12 percent per year,” the ACLU said in a press release. “Pierce County routinely refers these debts to private agencies and imposes these additional charges without holding a meaningful ability-to-pay hearing or inquiring as to whether the person’s nonpayment was willful or out of their control, the lawsuit alleges.”
A spokesperson said Pierce County had not yet officially received the lawsuit, and, because it had not been served, was not in a position to comment. Pierce County District Court administrator Misty Butler Robison said that court does not comment on pending litigation.
Lemmon’s LFOs were initially $800, and he now owes more than $2,000.
“Pierce County failed to notify Lemmon he has a right to an ability-to-pay hearing, failed to inquire into Lemmon’s ability to pay, failed to tell him additional fees would be imposed for his lack of payment, didn’t explain the debt could be reduced or waived if he was unable to pay, and sent his debt to collections despite his indigency,” the ACLU news release said.
The lawsuit said Lemmon, who is Black, is a military veteran who lives at a shelter run by the state Department of Veterans Affairs. He lives with disabilities, the lawsuit said, and struggled with housing and employment after his release. According to Pierce County court records, he maintained his innocence but pleaded guilty to violating a protection order, second-degree assault and second-degree burglary in 2010 to take advantage of negotiations with prosecutors.
“Mr. Lemmon’s case underscores the problem with LFOs,” ACLU of Washington attorney Breanne Schuster said in the news release. “Pierce County’s tactics ultimately trap a person in perpetual debt for years and even decades after their conviction, lengthening the time it takes people to pay these debts. This cruelty disproportionately impacts people of color and keeps people entangled in the criminal legal system despite their best efforts to grow and reintegrate into society.”
There was $105 million in LFOs assessed by Pierce County Superior Court between 2010 and 2017, the lawsuit said. Less than $10 million was paid in that time and more than $46 million in interest accrued.
“Pierce County’s actions are unconstitutional and, at their foundation, just plain cruel,” Toby J. Marshall, an attorney at Terrell Marshall Law Group, said in the news release. “To impose additional fees on Mr. Lemmon and thousands of others despite it being clear they cannot pay the original fees speaks to a broken system that prioritizes punishment over true rehabilitation. The system must change.”
The lawsuit alleges Pierce County’s system punishes poor people more harshly than those who can pay their court fees.
“Pierce County — acting pursuant to its policy, practice, and custom — has imposed additional punishment on Plaintiff Lemmon and members of the class by referring their LFO accounts to a commercial collection agency without conducting a constitutionally required inquiry into the ability of those people to pay, the adequacy of efforts to acquire resources to pay, the willfulness of nonpayment, or the availability of alternatives to additional punishment,” the lawsuit said.
Someone whose LFO account is delinquent gets a letter that says they have 30 days to pay or make new arrangements with the clerk, or their account will go to collections, the lawsuit said. It also described the effects that outstanding debt can have on someone’s life.
“Most of the participants of a Pierce County focus group conducted in late 2018 had experienced negative consequences from unpaid LFOs, including driver’s license suspension, increased fines, additional fees, wage garnishment, and jail time, as well as indirect consequences including damaged credit and an inability to obtain employment, housing, and public assistance,” the lawsuit said. “Many were homeless or lived with family or friends. Seventy-three percent of the respondents said they had to forgo at least two or more necessities to pay LFOs, and the most common necessities given up were groceries, rent payments, transportation costs, car payments, and utility bills.”
Charges and interest from collections also mean an indigent person stays under the Superior Court’s jurisdiction longer, according to the complaint.
“Washington court data indicate that for felony convictions, even those who make regular payments of $50 a month toward a typical legal debt will remain in arrears 30 years later, and it will take more than a decade for those who regularly pay $100 a month to eradicate their legal debt, even assuming no additional monetary sanctions are imposed,” the lawsuit said.
The additional costs when an account is sent to collections exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system, the complaint said: “For example, Black individuals make up only 5.6 percent of Pierce County’s population but in 2019, 17.4 percent of arrests and 25 percent of jail bookings were of Black individuals according to county data.”
In Tacoma the figures were 9.7 percent of the population and 33.5 percent of arrests.
“Accounting for all other factors, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people in Washington are sentenced to LFOs more frequently and assessed higher amounts than white individuals,” the lawsuit said. “... On a per capita basis in Washington, white individuals owe $210 in LFOs per 100,000 persons, whereas Latinx individuals owe $235 and Black individuals owe $650.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
