OAKLAND, Calif.– The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Public Counsel, Western Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP), Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC), Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA), The Insight Center, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) filed an amicus brief today in support of the petitioner in California v. Kopp before the California Supreme Court. The petitioner argued that trial courts must hold ability-to-pay hearings before imposing fines and fees – or legal financial obligations (LFOs) – on criminal defendants.
The brief explains that under both the United States and California constitutions it is unconstitutional to burden indigent defendants with fines and fees that they cannot afford to pay. Most significantly, it argues that in certain circumstances, the burden of proving a defendant’s ability to pay should fall on the State.
According to the groups’ amicus brief: "Unpaid court debt balloons over time as fines and the costs of collection accrue; low-income people risk wage garnishment, asset forfeiture, loss of credit, and even incarceration as collateral consequences of their continued entanglement with the criminal justice system. These burdens fall most heavily on people of color, who are arrested and placed on probation at disproportionate rates compared to white people."
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Press Contact: Vincenza Previte vincenza.previte@responsiblelending.org