Attorneys Laura Webb and Rochelle Sparko on inequities in the way NC collects court fines and fee

There are a lot of significant real-world problems that the state legislature’s cheapskate budgeting practices have caused in recent years, and here’s a classic example: Because it receives inadequate funding, the state’s court system has been forced to try and fund itself by imposing big fines and fees on people accused of crimes.

Of course, however, the big problem here is that most of these people are poor and unable to pay. Right now, the state tries to collect over time by converting these fines and fees into civil judgments, but as a new report documents, this conversion gives rise to a whole new set of problems. The report is entitled “Waiving Criminal Court Fees Prevents Harms of Civil Debt,” and recently NC Newsline caught up with attorneys behind it: Laura Webb of the North Carolina Justice Center and Rochelle Sparko of the Center for Responsible Lending.