Philly launches aggressive push to collect court debts

Philadelphia court officials, facing $1.5 billion in unpaid bail, restitution, and other court costs, vowed Monday to aggressively pursue that money by hiring lawyers to move to attach debtors' wages, seize their property, and even arrest them.

"We are not willing to let these debts slide," said President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe of Common Pleas Court. "This is money that folks owe."

Dembe and other top court administrators said they had created a new Office of Court Compliance to dun 400,000 people who owe money, much of which has gone unpaid for decades. About $1 billion of the money is forfeited bail owed by people charged with offenses ranging from drug dealing to attempted murder.

The debtors have until Feb. 28 to pay up - or at least work out a payment plan with the court - or face the consequences.

Court administrators acknowledge that collection efforts will be daunting. Of the 48,000 people who are now on probation or parole in Philadelphia, 69 percent are jobless, court officials say.

Defense lawyers questioned jailing debtors. "You're going to create debtors' prisons, and we got rid of those long ago," said Michael J. Engle.

This ambitious approach is a marked shift for the court system. As The Inquirer reported last year, Philadelphia courts for decades failed to pursue bail forfeited by people who skipped court.

Over time, the backlog grew so overwhelming and the debt so massive that court officials could not even say how much they were owed. When court officials finally tallied it up at the newspaper's request, it was a whopping $1 billion.

Philadelphia defendants are also supposed to be paying $144 million a year in fines, fees, and restitution to crime victims. At last count, they were paying only $10 million a year, or about seven cents on the dollar. Of the 224,000 defendants on payment plans, 206,000 are behind schedule. Most are months in arrears.

Engle, the president of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the push to collect overdue money made sense at a time when city and state budgets were strained.

But in light of the poverty of many defendants, he said, "I question the wisdom of locking people up because they owe money."

He said he did not believe the courts had the authority to arrest people who did not pay, but court officials said they were confident they did.

"Failure to obey a court order is a big deal," said David D. Wasson, chief deputy court administrator. "Failure to pay restitution to crime victims is a big deal. We're being very aggressive to get as much money back to the victim and the state and city as possible.

"People have been thumbing their noses at us," he said. "We've been very understanding over the years in light of the recession. These people have ignored us for a long time."

Dembe said court officials understood that many people are struggling financially. "But we've given them a lot of time," she said. "They at least have to come in, set up a payment plan, and start whittling it down."

"Even if people have very low income, they can still pay us money," added Wasson, who noted that some jailed defendants regularly make payments.

For years, city and state auditors have urged the city to step up collection efforts and pursue the hundreds of millions of dollars they are owed annually.

On Monday, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said he was pleased that the courts had heeded that call.

"What is the point of issuing fines that are fictitious or symbolic?" he asked. "It's supposed to be a deterrent. It's supposed to compensate the city."

Criminal defendants in Philadelphia, he said, have simply not been held financially accountable.

"An expectation has grown up - just like the people who don't pay their taxes or their water bills - that the city's going to be kind of a soft touch on this issue," said Butkovitz. "The public has come to believe that it's just a symbolic notice that's not going to be enforced."