As North Carolinas best-place finish attests, the presence or absence of municipal courts (factor A3) is a major driver of our rankings. On those factors that do apply, North Carolina generally performs well. Second, states can bar municipal courts from imposing fees in cases where people are acquitted or have their charges dismissed (factor F4). If municipalities can use garnishment and similar methods to collect fines, this may increase the risk of abuse in collections and, if successful in raising revenue, encourage frivolous cases. For example, James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan, has said, When elected officials say, We need more money, they cant look to the department of public works to raise revenues, so where do they find it? They neither curb municipal demand for fines and fees revenue nor bar municipalities from budgeting for and spending revenue from their courts. Municipalities like Pagedale, those described below and others across the country distort that purpose when they use traffic and other code violations to raise revenue from fines and fees rather than solely to protect the public. Georgia earns the worst spot in our rankings because it provides the weakest procedural protections for people facing ordinance prosecutions in municipal court (category E); gives municipal courts broad jurisdiction and allows municipalities to regulate the same or similar conduct as state law (first in category A); offers scant flexibility to people paying fines and fees (second in category C); and provides few safeguards that would prevent courts from jailing people who cannot pay fines and fees (seventh in category G). A municipal citation is considered a civil infraction and is non-criminal. Washington, DC. THE VIOLATION OF A MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE AS A CRIME There are few comers of the law that have so consistently defied anyuniformity of analysis as that of the legal effects of violating a municipalordinance. Given that municipalities are political subdivisions of states and so subject to their laws, state legislatures may be well situated to address municipal fines and fees behavior. Scale: 0 = unfunded, 1 = partially funded, 2 = fully funded, 3 = no municipal court system and therefore no funding or regulation necessary. Alternativessuch as payment by mail, at a court registry, online or over the telephonehelp people make payments on time and avoid late fees. The other 29 states are silent. In addition to first offense drunk driving charges, municipal courts also often handle: Traffic violations; Parking violations Violations of municipal or city ordinances are heard in municipal courts. ACLU of North Carolina. Of the states with municipal courts, no state requires all eight notice provisions. Their judges may be selected by the municipal government or by popular election. Comparisons across states are likely to be similarly illuminating. Conversely, ordinal scales offer multiple coding choices. May 9, 2017 | by James G. Dimeas, Esq. Looking across these factors, it is clear many states fail to set baseline protections to safeguard the rights of people prosecuted in municipal courts. All factor scores worked in the same direction, where the lower the score, the greater the potential for taxation by citation. Likewise, restrictions on new fees prevent municipalities and courts from introducing more fees to bypass caps on existing ones. And passing individual reforms at the state level fails to address the sprawl of unconnected laws that likely affect municipal fines and fees behavior. Overall, six statesNevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginialeave municipal punishments particularly unrestrained. 12 Fifteen states do not bar courts from jailing people who lack the means to pay fines and fees (factor G1). Drivers license suspensions are one of the harshest means courts can use to try to force people to pay fines and fees. For example, five coding options are provided for whether states allow jury trials in municipal ordinance prosecutions when requested by the accused (factor E3): 0 = no, 1 = state law silent, 2 = yes, for some cases or with conditions, 3 = yes, 4 = n/a as no municipal court system. In all, 28 states permit municipal courts. For every category save A, a states category score encompasses all of a categorys relevant factors in the form of the mean of their respective factor scores. For policy researchers, the advantages of creating and using such constructs are at least threefold. The law is silent on both fines and fees in the remaining 31 states, leaving open the possibility that municipalities contract with private debt collectors. These scores indicate where a state stands relative to other statesnot some external criteriain how its laws may be related to revenue generation through fines and fees. In Wisconsin, a municipal offense or ordinance offense or civil offense or noncriminal offense or municipal infraction or infraction is the infringement of a city ordinance. While municipal ordinances will differ on a city-by-city basis, they tend to be of a similar nature. the Brookings Institutions Hamilton Project; 19 Municipal courts must often raise their own funds from fees they collect in cases brought by municipalities, or else depend on municipalities to fund their staffing and operations, making them susceptible to municipal pressure to convict and impose fines on people. States can curb such abuse by (1) reducing municipalities need for fines and fees revenue, (2) limiting municipalities control over revenue collected by municipal courts, and (3) safeguarding those courts independence. Scale: 0 = state law permits fees to be charged regardless of whether a case is dismissed or defers to the discretion of the municipal court or municipality, 1 = mandated, 2 = n/a as no municipal court system. 33 This, in turn, may promote greater neutrality and competency among personnel and lower the risk of abuse. Second, states can give municipalities other options for raising revenue. It does not include case law, regulations or other potential sources of law. Cities and towns nationwide use their power to enforce traffic, property code and other ordinances to raise revenue rather than solely to protect the public. 26 The Institute for Justice is a 501(c)(3) organization; donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Too few states offer drivers any of these protections, particularly the first two, which are arguably most important. In addition to systematically identifying the 52 factors and their respective state laws, we created scales for each factor that allow for the empirical measurement of how state laws perform in prohibiting, sustaining, encouraging or failing to neutralize municipal use of fines and fees to raise revenue. All 52 factors, with explanations of their hypothesized links to municipal taxation by citation and scales, are presented below under Factor Explanations. Examples of some cases which we have successfully had criminal charges downgraded to municipal ordinance violations are: The higher the burden of proof the municipality must clear in making its case, the less risk of municipalities bringing frivolous cases solely to raise revenue. While it is extremely unlikely that you will serve any jail time it is still a possibility in some cases. The relationship between such laws and fines and fees is less obvious, but the DOJ found Ferguson filed most charges as municipal ordinance violations despite the existence of analogous state offenses. If people can easily learn how much they will owe before their court date, they can prepare to pay in court and avoid return visits and penalties. This page is not available in other languages. Scale: 0 = no, 1 = state law silent, 2 = yes, for some cases or with conditions, 3 = yes, 4 = n/a as no municipal court system. Municipal courts have jurisdiction over non-criminal municipal ordinance violations, including first offense OWI changes. Check out some of our latest cases. States can restrain fines by setting upper limits on the fines courts can order people to pay (factor F1i). With the scores transformed, we were able to calculate the alpha scores. Look for job openings in the NJ municipal courts. Without flexibility and notice, people may fall behind on court debt and incur late fees. This category examines baseline protections the 28 states with municipal courts can require before, during and after cases go to court. And no North Carolina municipality appeared among the 840 jurisdictions reported by Governing magazine to derive more than 10% of their revenues from fines and fees or to collect more than $100 in fines and fees per adult resident. If the personal (e.g., salary, commission, job security or promotion prospects) and institutional (e.g., funding) interests of municipal court personnel are shielded from municipal reprisals, municipal court personnel may face less pressure, have less incentive for abuse and be better able to carry out their duties neutrally. Unfortunately, only three states specifically offer this protection. Discovery, which is available in different forms in criminal and civil proceedings, is a procedure for gathering information that allows the accused to learn what facts and legal theories prosecutors will rely on. We include factor A2 in the overall score because, whether or not it coheres with the other category A factors, we posit a link to municipal fines and fees behavior. Pages 20 and 21. 1986. That is, they must offer enough coding options to meaningfully account for different possible responses on factors without offering so many that differences between them blur and consistently classifying laws becomes difficult. By contrast, 19 require courts to collect full payment. New State Law Amends Municipal Code. But even if they are not doing so now, some may be only a budget shortfall, economic downturn or leadership change away from starting. And from a professional integrity standpoint, states can set higher ethics and professionalism standards for court personnel (factor B8ii). Courts can post this information online, at court registry offices or in other prominent public locations. Limitations on Municipal Punishments It is followed closely by West Virginia and Rhode Island. 22 (a) Violation of a city ordinance is a misdemeanor unless by ordinance it is made an infraction. Sounding a similar note, Michael Reaves, then-chief of the Utica, Michigan, Police Department, explained, When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if youre a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues. 6, Taxation by citation burst into the public consciousness in 2014 following the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, another municipality in St. Louis County. Among other practices, this may entail preventing city councils and mayors from appointing or removing judges; barring mayors or their designees from sitting as judges; organizing prosecutors and other law enforcement officers in separate offices from court personnel; physically removing courts from police departments; and barring court personnel from wearing anything signifying they are law enforcement officers. After the shooting and the protests that ensued, the U.S. Department of Justice documented in a 2015 report how tensions in Ferguson long pre-dated Browns death and stemmed in significant part from the citys aggressive use of its police and municipal court to raise revenue through code enforcement. IJ provides principled advocacy and issue-area expertise to support legislation that expands individual liberty and protects vital constitutional rights. Without such constraints, courts may require in-person payment for more offenses, increasing the risk of missed court dates and late fees. Scale: 0 = requires full payment of all fines and fees owed, 1 = state law silent, 2 = provides holistic criteria to apply, such as whether partial payments have been made on outstanding fines and fees, or prohibits suspension of licenses in traffic or municipal ordinance cases Yet, as far as we know, no one has ever compiled a systematic collection of the relevant laws scattered across the constitutions, codes and court rules of the 50 states. The only factors on which North Carolina shows substantial room for improvement are those concerning municipal finance; the states laws do little to reduce municipalities demand for fines and fees revenue, even if they make actually pursuing such revenue difficult. Third, states can require municipal courts to function separately from the politicalthat is, legislative and executivebranches of municipal government (factor B7). If municipalities must also meet that standard in ordinance prosecutions, they are less likely to bring frivolous cases solely to raise revenue. This can divert casesand thus revenuefrom state courts to municipal ones potentially interested in the cases outcomes. Another examines the extent to which laws restrict how municipalities spend the fines and fees collected by municipal courts (factor B4). Further, no state requires revenue from municipal courts be sent to neutral funds beyond municipal control. A municipal code is usually a type of statutory instrument or delegated legislation . In two states, municipalities do not control the collection process. But before we could do that, we first needed to harmonize the factor scores. Wash. The remaining states are silent. the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; 16 Ordinance Violations are not considered criminal matters (such as traffic, misdemeanor and/or felony charges, which are prosecuted by the Champaign County State's Attorney . This act prohibits municipalities from denying use and occupancy certificates based on the results of a point of sale inspection. For this reason, factors considering whether states cap municipal fines and feesnamely, factors F1i and F1iilook at all states and not just those with municipal courts. In line with the basic principle of fairness that underpins the constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy, people whose cases have been dismissed should not have to face possible conviction twice. We therefore examined the estimated alphas if each factor in the category were deleted. A focus on defendants constitutional rights also means informing defendants of their rights and allowing them to request, if unable to pay fines and fees, alternative punishment, such as community service. Statute 2B:12-11 for information about the municipal court administrator hiring process. A municipal legal code is similar in concept, though different in nature, to "codes" enacted by sovereign government authorities, such as a national government or a federal state or province within a federation . See also Kopf, D. (2016, June 24). For other factors, the link to taxation by citation is less readily apparent. Complementing direct bans, states can also prohibit a possible workaround: jailing people for contempt of court because they cannot pay (factor G2). Scale: 0 = yes, 1 = state law silent, 2 = no, 3 = n/a as municipalities do not control the collection process. Fifteen states with municipal courts allow for jury trials in some or all ordinance cases. This category considers ways states can achieve those ends and try to prevent fines and fees abuse. And in 2019, Governing magazine reported hundreds of municipalities nationwide are addicted to fines. 14, A number of university research programs and national policy organizations have also taken up the issue. We identified such factors through our review of works on fines and fees, including, most notably, the DOJs Ferguson report. Scale: 0 = state law silent, 1 = permitted or encouraged, 2 = required, 3 = no municipal court system. And in 17 of those states, municipal courts enjoy jurisdiction over some state law cases in addition to municipal ordinance prosecutions (factor A4). Fines often range between $500 and $1,000, but they can reach up to . Finally, to protect people from overly harsh punishments or financial ruin, states can require municipal courts to look beyond monetary penalties and jail in sentencing people (factor F5). Yet failure to appear in court to pay fines and fees can lead to late fees and additional penalties, including arrest and incarceration. the Fines and Fees Justice Center; 17 Where a courts fines and fees schedule is easily accessible, people can attend court prepared to pay the total amount owed for a given offense or to remit payment via another option if available. To the extent this is the case, this may be due to municipal ordinances or rogue municipal practices, or even to state-level taxation by citation. Proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard required in criminal cases. Of the 47 states that allow jail for nonpayment, 30 prohibit jailing people for contempt because they cannot pay. IJ files cutting-edge constitutional cases in state and federal courts to defend the rights of our clients and set legal precedent that protects countless others like them. Whether municipalities ultimately abuse fines and fees is a matter of local policy. Third, few states protect people from license suspensions for failure to pay fines and fees in traffic casesone of the harshest means courts can use to try to force people to pay fines and fees. After a persons case is decided, states can provide two additional protections. In 2015, Pagedale threatened Mildred with 12 municipal code violations for things like not having matching curtains or slats on her homes windows.jQuery(document).ready(function($) {$('[data-toggle="tooltip"]').tooltip();$('[data-toggle="popover"]').popover();}); 1 Thus, just as they do in state-court criminal cases, jury trials in ordinance cases serve as checks on governments power to arbitrarily deprive people of their liberty or property. may allow for, if not incentivize, municipal taxation by citation relative to other states laws. E. This category considers eight distinct notice provisions, including whether people are told the specific municipal code provisions they supposedly violated (E1ii), when and where they must appear in court (E1v), and any available ways to avoid attending court (E1vi). The court will not appoint or pay for you to have an attorney for violation cases, but if you wish, you may hire an attorney . In May 2019, the Gulf Coast city of Dunedin, Florida, made national headlines when a resident sued the city over excessive fines it had levied on him for uncut grass. 2 (a) the name and address of the defendant; (b) the name or description of the infraction attested to by the officer issuing the citation; (c) the location and time of the infraction; (d) the amount of civil penalty to be assessed or the alternate relief sought, or both; :: (e) the manner, location, and time in which the penalty may be paid; Because these units are typically agencies of the local government, rather than judicial courts, we do not consider them municipal courts for the purposes of this report. As awareness about this phenomenon grows, there will be increasing calls for comprehensive policy solutions, not simply political ones (e.g., voting out elected officials) or very targeted fixes (e.g., revenue caps). Scale: 0 = no, municipal courts barely regulated, if at all, 1 = somewhat, partial regulation of municipal courts, 2 = yes, significant regulation of municipal courts, 3 = no municipal court system and therefore no regulation necessary. 24 Dichotomous scales offer a binary yes or no coding choice, such as for whether states create, or permit municipalities to create, municipal courts (factor A3). The remaining 12 states are silent. If permitted to outsource fee collection, municipalities may contract with private entities that violate the constitutional bar on threatening incarceration for inability to pay. Grouping factors in this way came with the added, although not entirely intended, benefit of suggesting categories, or constructs, that could be created with the factors. There are no juries in municipal court, but rather a judge who ultimately decides the case. Such broad jurisdiction may allow municipalities to reap fees from state law cases even if any fines must be remitted to the state. If you have received a ticket for a municipal violation, this article will explain your rights and responsibilities in municipal court. In general, we catalogued all possible representations of the states laws for each factor. The most common types of violations include Traffic, Boating, and Fish & Wildlife. We identified the factors by an original review of state laws as of 2017 and a close analysis of issues discussed in the DOJs Ferguson report 29 Scale: 0 = property, sales or income tax, 1 = any two of property, sales and income taxes, 2 = property, sales and income taxes The municipality is authorized to prosecute violations of penal ordinances enacted under this Section as criminal offenses by its corporate attorney in the circuit court by an information, or complaint sworn to, charging such offense. Just five states require municipal courts to publicly post fines and fees schedules. If municipalities must provide options for paying fines and fees other than appearance in court, it is likely there will be fewer missed appearances and so less risk of late fees being levied. Paying municipal fines and fees may be particularly onerous in seven states: Alabama, Georgia, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Most states (35) have enacted such prohibitions, but 15 still have not. It also informs the person cited of the entity bringing the case against them. 9 violations of laws enacted by the municipality itself) taking place in the municipality, which can range from parking infractions to zoning code violations to minor misdemeanors that are also state crimes. Particular thanks to Lisa Knepper for the incisive thinking and deft management she brought to the project. A municipal ordinance violation is a non-criminal disposition of your case which will not result in any criminal record. USA Today, for example, reported Montgomery, Alabama, collected almost $16 million in fines and forfeitures in 2013more than five times what similarly sized Alabama cities collected. In the other 22 states, municipal prosecutions are heard by state courts. Providing the section number(s) of the municipal code said to be violated reduces the risk of citations for contrived or vague offenses to raise revenue and enables the person cited to understand and respond to the accusation. Scale: 0 = all municipal code prosecutions and some state cases, such as certain state law misdemeanors, 1 = all municipal code prosecutions, 2 = some but not all municipal code prosecutions, 3 = no municipal court system. First, municipalities may set heavy fines disproportionate to offenses. This category considers four ways states can require municipal courts to ease payment of court debt and help people avoid escalating fees. These enforcement methods may include, but are not limited to, the issuance of a citation, a summons, or a notice to appear in county . Two others permit or encourage the practice. Too few states require municipal courts to ease payment in any of these ways, and no state requires courts to provide more than two protections. While two statesOhio and Washingtonprovide funding for municipal court judges under some circumstances, no state fully funds municipal courts. Scale: 0 = no, 1 = state law silent, 2 = yes. Regulating fees may also prevent municipalities from setting fees far in excess of the value of services provided. However, our use of states as the unit of analysis precluded such an analysis. States can also offer another vital procedural protection: They can require courts to notify accused people facing potential jail time that they have a right to an attorney at no cost for ability-to-pay and contempt hearings (factor G5). Second, a sizable number of states have not codified protections against incarceration for failure to pay court debt, despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent finding it unconstitutional to jail people without first determining whether they have the means to pay. Six states delegate the maximum authority to municipalities and municipal courts as measured by this category: Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada and New York. States with and without municipal courts can reduce municipalities demand for fines and fees revenue in three ways. Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman and Grafton H Hull Jr. Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities. Indeed, there is strong anecdotal evidence of municipal courts enabling fines and fees abuse. Municipal courtslike all courtsare supposed to focus on defendants constitutional rights and not on revenue generation. Such evidence suggests that far from being the province of a few bad apple municipalities, taxation by citation is widespread enough to be detectible in econometric analyses. IJ produces one-of-a-kind, high-quality research to enhance our effectiveness in court, educate the public, and shape public debate around our key issues. A municipal court's authority over these ordinance violations is similar to the authority that district courts have over state law violations. Providing a description of the alleged code violation reduces the risk of citations for contrived or vague offenses to raise revenue and enables the person cited to understand and respond to the accusation. Not only are such consequences often disproportionate to the actual offensestypically minor traffic violationsthey may also make it harder for people to pay their court debt. In every state, state laws govern license suspensions for failure to pay in traffic cases, whether the underlying offenses are under municipal codes or state laws. 8 Maciag, M. (2019, Aug. 21). It found that for years before the unrest, Ferguson officials had urged the police chief and municipal court judgeboth political appointeesto prioritize revenue maximization, working with them to meet significant budget increases using citation revenue. "Some areas require their municipal official to inspect the home before listing. Scale: 0 = unrestricted, 1 = somewhat restricted, 2 = restricted, 3 = no municipal court system and therefore no regulation necessary. One such approach is an analysis based on state laws that may be related to municipal taxation by citation. A look at every case we have filed, past and present. However, courts and municipalities may be able to evade caps on fines and fees where states do not bar them from creating new fees absent state approval, and few states offer that protection. We begin with judicial power because permitting municipalities to create their own courts (factor A3) heightens the risks of giving municipalities broad legislative authority to create new municipal offenses. If judges are not bound by minimum fines in the municipal code, they can set lower fines to account for mitigating circumstances and ability to pay. Table 1: Cronbachs Alpha for Original Categories. A municipal ordinance violation is the lowest degree of quasi criminal offense that exists. Particularly for people of limited means, making a court date can be a hardship, demanding time off work or costly and often hard to find child care. Breaking news from IJ, including case updates. Neither do these states prohibit municipalities from outsourcing collections or from using civil judgment enforcement methods. Both types of scores are described below. These prohibitions may be better observed where states incorporate them into their own laws. These include factors having to do with municipal court jurisdiction, independence, payment terms, procedural protections and punishments. However, only two firmly cap what municipalities can keep. A yes response on that factor reflects a state law more conducive to taxation by citation. All of these scores are unweighted means. Considering all these restraints, states are more likely to bar courts from jailing people unable to pay and offer procedural protections to those facing jail than they are to prohibit municipalities from outsourcing collections or using civil judgment enforcement methods. Those states do not require, or even encourage, courts to accept partial payments of fines and fees or post fines and fees schedules publicly. Incarceration and Collections, Municipal Authority to Enact Codes and Enforce Them in Municipal Courts, Flexible Payment Terms and Notice in Municipal Courts, Drivers License Suspensions for Failure to Pay, Procedural Protections in Municipal Courts, Restrictions on Incarceration and Methods for Municipal Collections. If permitted, municipal courts may require in-court payment for more offenses, which increases the likelihood people will miss appearances and therefore accrue additional fees. Kentucky requires municipalities to send all fines from ordinance violations to the state, while Missouri allows municipalities to derive up to 20% of their operating revenue from fines and fees, with any overage going to the state. The first, and most critical, way states can ease payment is by requiring municipal courts to accept partial payments (factor C4). But 13 states allow or encourage them to do so. It uses 52 legal factors to rank the 50 states based on the extent to which their laws may contribute to municipal fines and fees abuse. Drivers are also ticketed more when property values (and thus property tax revenues) are lower. The Phoenix New Times reported the Arizona municipal courts with the highest net incomes for fiscal year 2017: Tempe (pop. Punishment Limitations, G. If courts offer non-jail alternative punishments, the accused may feel less pressure to plead guilty and pay fines and fees to avoid jail. It may therefore help protect against unconstitutional incarceration for inability to pay. All scheduled trials, hearings and jury duty will be postponed. Violations General Information. However, some states ceilings are as high as $5,000 per offense for most municipal code violations. This is taxation by citation, and it is a phenomenon even some public officials have acknowledged. Washington, DC, p. 3. It is, however, interesting to look at the number of reported charges and convictions. North Carolina owes its ranking, in large part, to its lack of municipal courts (factor A3). By contrast, state courts tend to enjoy greater financial independence. See our clients talk about their experiences and learn how we are fighting for their rightsand yours. Requiring courts to provide this information could make court personnel less likely to levy unauthorized fees and allows people to understand the precise fees and amounts they owe. Courts should hold people in contempt only if they willfully disobey court orders, and not because they cannot afford fines and fees, regardless of municipal ordinances to the contrary. Without such measures, municipalities have an incentive to circumvent other protections to maximize their fines and fees take. Scale: 0 = no, 1 = yes, 2 = no municipal court system and therefore no regulation necessary. The other 12 states are silent. From a financial perspective, states can protect court personnels job security and incomes, as well as court funding, from municipal reprisals for unfavorable case outcomes (factor B8i). If municipalities must clear a higher burden of proof to convict in cases where incarceration can be ordered, the threat of incarceration may be less effective in coercing guilty pleas and payments. Just six states with municipal courts require those courts to incorporate any fee amounts into their orders, and only three mandate that courts also name those fees in their orders. Municipal councils regulate the fines and fees courts can assess in ordinance violation cases, whether those cases are heard by municipal courts or, where municipal courts do not exist, state ones. Just four states require municipal courts to provide such payment options, though 12 others allow or encourage it. Discovery in municipal ordinance prosecutions allows the accused to know the case against them, gather evidence, and properly prepare a defense. This category examines such restraints on municipal prosecutions in both state and municipal courts because both may hear code violation cases that carry jail time. The U.S. Supreme Court has long held it unconstitutional to incarcerate people economically unable to pay fines and fees. Again, the Supreme Court has long held the Constitution requires ability-to-pay hearings, but anecdotal evidence suggests courts do not consistently comply and municipal codes often do not include them. Scales must accomplish two main objectives in order to helpfully measure laws. 31 IJ stands for the idea that every child deserves a chance at a great education and that all parents, regardless of means, should enjoy the freedom to direct their childrens education. Clearly instructing the accused to appear in court at a stated time and place reduces the risk of missed court dates and associated fees. Public defenders or other court-appointed counsel can help people secure a fair hearingand potentially stay out of jail. Similar statutory provisions often appear in the same parts of state codes. IJs tax ID number is 52-1744337. Unless states limit punishments, municipalities and courts may set excessively harsh penalties for people accused of violating ordinances in order to raise revenue. 2011. Missouri municipalities must fund the other 80% of their budgets using other sources. Scale: 0 = municipality has burden to prove on the preponderance of the evidence, 1 = state law silent, 2 = municipality has burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence, 3 = municipality has burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, 4 = n/a as no municipal court system or because incarceration cannot be ordered by a municipal court for an ordinance violation. Ideally, we would have subjected the data to factor analysis to measure construct validitythat is, to determine whether the factors making up a category are statistically related and therefore whether such a grouping is appropriate. We defined upper and lower boundaries for those representations and created parsimonious scales to capture gradations between those boundaries. These states all cap fines to some degree but otherwise do not fully restrict punishments in any of the above ways, potentially making it easier and more profitable for municipalities and courts to pursue fines and fees revenue. The resident, Institute for Justice client Jim Ficken, a 69-year-old retiree, was in South Carolina attending to his late mothers estate when Dunedin began fining him $500 a day because his lawn exceeded the code-defined maximum length of 10 inches. Given municipal courts centrality in taxation by citation, many of our 52 factors focus on laws covering various aspects of municipal courts with a particular emphasis on independence. (1) a fine or penalty for the violation of a rule, ordinance, or police regulation that governs fire safety, zoning, or public health and sanitation, other than the dumping of refuse, may not exceed $2,000; and No state directly bars their use. If you have been charged with criminal offense or accused of violating a municipal ordinance in New Jersey, you need to discuss your options with a knowledgeable attorney. The remaining 27 are silent, leaving open the possibility that municipalities will seek to regulate the same or similar conduct as state laws. An infraction, sometimes called a petty offense, is a violation of an administrative regulation, an ordinance, a municipal code, or, in some jurisdictions, a state or local traffic rule. Twenty-five permit municipalities to levy property and sales or property and income taxes, and one permits them to levy all three taxes (factor B2). Among other reforms, the consent decree required Pagedale to repeal sections of its municipal code that made many harmless conditions illegal. Looking at all these punishment limitations, most states protect people by capping fines. The remaining 15 have no law on point, likely leaving the decision in the hands of judges. But taken together, these results suggest the laws of too many states give municipalities ample incentive and means to engage in taxation by citation. Thus, the existence of municipal courts can open the door to all manner of provisions and practices that could make it easier for municipalities to pursue fines and fees for financial gain. Scale: 0 = no, 1 = state law silent, 2 = yes, 3 = n/a as incarceration not a penalty for nonpayment. This way, people can begin paying down their debt and avoid penalties. Procedural Protections in Municipal Courts To make the index more user-friendly, we have grouped the factors into seven thematically based categories (see the Methods for more information on how and why we created the categories): Municipal Authority to Enact Codes and Enforce Them in Municipal Courts and the Institute for Justice. By comparison, the national median municipality with a population greater than 5,000 receives 0.9%. 23 4, Policing is supposed to be about protecting and advancing public safety. (2019). Nineteen of the 28 states with municipal courts bar them from imposing fees on people unless they are convicted or plead guilty. Second, states can require municipalities to send revenue raised by their courts to funds beyond municipal controlfor instance, to a county school or hospital fund (factor B4). It is unconstitutional to threaten people with incarceration for inability to pay or to circumvent the U.S. Constitutions ban on incarceration for inability to pay by incarcerating for contempt of court those unable to pay. Washington, DC. 39 Yet they may find it difficult to navigate the legal process and assert their rights without one. Municipalities in those states may therefore enjoy greater ability to levy fines and fees for financial gain than municipalities elsewhere. Whether and to what extent state laws affect municipal taxation by citation is largely unknown, but anecdotal evidence suggests they could be an important policy mechanism for regulating municipalities fines and fees behavior. Most states with municipal courts17 of 28permit them to decide some state law cases in addition to code violation cases. 29, The story made national headlines, and reporters inundated city leaders with questions. ** For example, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reported that large municipalities in North Carolina (e.g., Greensboro, Raleigh, and Charlotte) collected almost no revenue per capita from fines and fees (2017, p. 26). Most ordinance violations will only impose a fine, but a few can include jail time as well. Where courts cannot suspend peoples licenses for failure to pay in the first place, it is less critical that states require courts to accept partial payments to lift suspensions. Ten states do not require any of the eight notice provisions; the remaining states vary. Without municipal courts, many factors simply do not apply, resulting in lowerbetterrankings across most categories. Once a case gets to court, states can protect the accused in two important ways. IJ believes that all people have the right to earn an honest living in the occupation of their choice without arbitrary, unnecessary, or protectionist government interference. Municipal court independence is in doubt where courts face pressure to return convictionsand fines revenueto their municipalities. States can protect people in two ways before their cases reach court. **** Some states allow municipalities to establish a system for the administrative adjudication of certain civil (i.e., noncriminal) municipal ordinance violations that are punishable by fines only (i.e., not punishable by incarceration). Violations of the City Code are known as Ordinance Violations. A cap on the fines that can be assessed per offense restrains municipalities from setting exorbitant fines and limits pressure on the accused to plead guilty in order to avoid more crippling financial punishment. If municipalities can retain fines and fees revenue only up to a cap, there is no financial incentive beyond that point for them to use code enforcement to raise revenue rather than to protect the public. Because these scores are all z-scores, and because all the scales are negatively coded, states with laws with the greatest potential for taxation by citation behavior have the lowest scores. Act 133 of 2016, which took effect January 2, 2017, amended the Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act (MCOCA), originally enacted as Act 99 of 2000. The violation of a city ordinance may be prosecuted by city authorities in the name of the people of the State of California, or redressed by civil action. In the overall rankings, Georgia comes first as the state whose laws appear most conducive to municipal taxation by citation. (The Methods section explains how we created the rankings.) In the remaining states, municipal courts hear only municipal prosecutions. Volume 2. Each of those states has municipal courts and awards those courts significant judicial power through broad jurisdiction to adjudicate all municipal court ordinance prosecutions and some cases under state law. Scale: 0 = municipality has burden to prove on the preponderance of the evidence, 1 = state law silent, suggesting at least a preponderance standard, 2 = municipality has burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence, 3 = municipality has burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, 4 = n/a as no municipal court system. Only Hawaii, Nebraska and North Carolina provide all three protections, helping ensure residents do not lose their driving privileges just because they cannot pay fines and fees. Only four states do not. Other observers, however, report that fines and fees abuse still occurs in North Carolina. These restraints target courts and the main tool municipalities may provide them to extract fines and feesthe threat of jail time. Municipalities in those states may therefore have more of an incentive to generate revenue from fines and fees than municipalities in other states. Broader jurisdiction can bring more prosecutions to municipal courts, including some violations of state law. Governing. In addition to bans, states can establish important procedural protections for people facing jail time for failing to pay fines and fees. Justin Wilson worked with web developers to bring that concept to life. Table 2 ranks states based on overall score, with states with the smallest scoresi.e., the greatest potential for taxation by citationat the top. Specifying the names of any fees assessed provides some transparency as to the fees owed and their respective amounts. Rather, we would expect them to stay constant or rise, as more economic activity and greater workforce participation result in busier roads. If municipal courts must function independently from the political branches of municipal government, any pressure they face to convict or coerce guilty pleas may be less effective. Municipal Court Administration. Scale: 0 = no or not prohibited in some cases, 1 = yes. Relevant to the latter, the ACLU of North Carolina has suggested the state uses fines and fees to fund tax cuts. Review the Municipal Court Consolidation Plan to learn more about how municipalities can save money by consolidating their court services. This makes municipal courts potentially susceptible to municipal pressure to convict and impose fines on people. Reasonable notice of an ability-to-pay hearing gives the accused time to instruct counsel, compile evidence of their income and expenses, and prepare argument, which may help prevent unconstitutional incarceration for inability to pay. First, states can protect peoples rights from the moment code enforcement or police officers issue citations, by requiring that citations explain how to resolve or contest the charges (factor E1iviii). 11 The full scale for each factor is provided below under Factor Explanations. If municipalities cannot keep fines and fees revenue above a certain cap, or must allocate revenue raised by their courts to school or hospital funds, this limits, if not eliminates, their financial incentive to pursue such revenue. Those interested in seeing how the 50 states perform across every factor in a given category can click on the 50 state table button at the bottom of each category description. Arlington, Va.Cities and towns nationwide use their power to enforce traffic, property code and other ordinances to raise revenue rather than solely to protect the [], Mildred Bryant is an 88-year-old resident of Pagedale, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The opinions expressed in this report are the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arnold Ventures. [1], A municipal offense is not a crime.[2][3]. First, they can require municipalities to satisfy a higher standard of proof, especially when jail time is possible (factor E5ii). This accounting comes in the form of an index of 52 law-based factors that measure the extent to which state laws may prohibit, sustain, encourage or fail to neutralize municipal taxation by citation. Seven states with municipal courts require or encourage them to consider alternative punishments. None of these states restricts courts from using incarceration to collect fines and fees in any of the ways discussed here. Scale: 0 = yes, 1 = state law silent, 2 = no, 3 = no municipal court system. And, as this report finds, a wide range of state laws may enable or even encourage such taxation by citation. In states without municipal courts, like North Carolina, these and many other factors (31 of the 52 factors in total) are simply non-issues. Second, states can set minimum criteria to shield the neutrality of judges and other court personnel (factors B8i, B8ii). Typically, those offenses have punishments up to . Because the rankings are based on states laws and not municipal behavior, they reflect how much states might allow or promote municipal taxation by citation relative to other statesnot the extent of municipal fines and fees abuses. Municipal courts may not provide people accused of violating ordinances with the same procedural protections typically offered elsewhere in the justice system. First, they can limit the amounts and types of fees municipalities can set and courts can charge (factor F1ii). By one account, Doraville issues citations of more than $800 per resident annually and upwards of 40 citations per day on average. 250,000) at $3,023,437, Paradise Valley (pop. But if municipalities were focused solely on reducing traffic accidents, we would not expect ticketing levels to fall during economic booms. This category explores how states can restrain such punishments to make it more difficult to levy fines and fees on people for financial gain. Just like State laws create State crimes, and Federal laws create Federal crimes, individual towns, cities and villages also create laws, called Municipal Ordinances, which can give rise to charges alleging a violation of a Municipal Ordinance. Counsel facilitates a fair hearing by assisting the accused in navigating the legal process and asserting their rights. Dallas County courts are not affected by the closure. Cengage Learning. Municipal ordinances are the rules, regulations, or codes enacted into law by local government. Thirty-seven states regulate fees in some way, but only seven of those states bar new fees without state authorization. These works helped us identify numerous factors, including whether states permit the operation of municipal courts (factor A3), which can have strong financial or institutional interests in the outcome of the cases they hear; prevent municipal courts from levying fees in cases dismissed or where the person is acquitted (factor F4); prohibit incarcerating people for not paying court debts (factor G1); require ability-to-pay hearings (factor G3); bar courts from suspending drivers licenses for nonpayment of fines or fees (factors D1 and D2) or from demanding payment in full before lifting license suspensions (factor D3); and permit municipalities to outsource collection of municipal court debts to private entities (factors G7i and G7ii). In most states, an infraction is not considered a criminal offense and is rarely punishable by incarceration. Montana Code Annotated. By contrast, misdemeanor larceny, the most charged non-traffic misdemeanor in 2018 lists 43,908 charges and 18,820 convictions. This may make it easier for courts to convict and levy fines and fees on people. Examples include state laws that cap the percentage of revenue municipalities can generate through fines and fees (factor B3) or that regulate the amount of fines that can be assessed per municipal ordinance violation (factor F1i). It is fundamentally fair that only those convicted or pleading guilty or no contest pay court fees. Such factors include whether states commit to funding municipal courts (factor B5) and whether states require municipal courts to function independently of their legislative and executive counterparts in municipal government (factor B7). (2015). Listen to IJ attorneys and guests discuss the freedom, justice, and the law. *** They are not agencies of the executive branch.****. Caps on specific fees prevent municipalities and courts from using fees to evade limits on fines. A second, related way states may give municipalities judicial power is by granting municipal courts jurisdiction over some state law cases (factor A4). And, as this report finds, a wide range of state laws may enable or even encourage such taxation by citation. IJ is in court nationwide defending individual liberty. 40 All but one state with municipal courts allows people to appeal ordinance convictions. The survey of state laws we present here offers a systematic way to diagnose the possible relationships between state policies and municipal behavior and identify potential ways by which state leaders can ensure the actions of municipalities are both legal and right. Constructs present a more statistically reasonable alternative. Third, states can require courts to lift license suspensions when people make partial payments toward their court debt (factor D3). Scale: 0 = no, 1 = state law silent, 2 = yes, but requires leave of the court, 3 = yes, 4 = n/a as no municipal court system. Scale: 0 = no, 1 = yes, 2 = n/a as no municipal court system or otherwise not necessary. Municipal courts handle matters like traffic tickets and code violations. Another 17 permit alternatives. A number of states have some relevant regulations, but no state extensively regulates municipal courts in this way. Third, states can require municipal courts to (1) incorporate the amounts of any court or prosecution fees into their orders of what people must pay (factor F3i) and (2) specify the names of those fees in their orders (factor F3ii). Third, states can protect municipalities from having to provide new services without a funding source (factor B6). Consistent with the foregoing, scales and codes vary by factor. Municipalities may use authority under a charter to enact ordinances against harmless or vaguely defined conduct and then strictly enforce those provisions to raise revenue. However, municipal courts, which more often rely on fines and fees for operational and other expenses, may be more prone to leveraging fear of jail to secure guilty pleas and collect revenue. This means courts should not incarcerate people for failure to pay fines and fees without first holding a hearing to determine whether they can reasonably afford to pay. Enforcing higher standards creates accountability and may promote greater neutrality and competency among court personnel, lowering the risk of abuse. Police departments. 5 With these scores, states can be ranked based on the extent to which their laws may allow for, if not incentivize, taxation by citation behavior. Cities and towns nationwide use their power to enforce traffic, property code and other ordinances to raise revenue rather than solely to protect the public. First, courts may jail people who fail to paya severe measure that risks punishing people for being poor. But because the law applied only to moving violations on federal and state roads, municipalities could and did continue to issue citations for nonmoving violations and other municipal code violations. A right of appeal safeguards justice by offering the accused access to state courts, free from potential institutional interests in the outcome, and promotes municipal court accountability through review of their judgments. The three states also place consistently in or near the top 10 in all categories, suggesting they may be ripe for significant reform efforts. Elyse Smith pitched in with crucial additional research. Factor coding is based on states regulations of municipalities (i.e., cities, towns and villages, but not counties), which may not reflect local ordinances, policies or practices. It should be noted that z-scores are, of course, measures of relative position. In municipalities that have them, municipal courts process citations, making these courts a primary mechanism for revenue generation. Diana Simpson provided invaluable legal fact-checking. It ranks 49th and last on categories G and D, respectively, as it prohibits jailing people or suspending their drivers licenses when they fail to pay fines and fees unless that failure was willful. The ordinance violation must have occurred within the boundaries of the municipality. The rankings offer a systematic way to diagnose possible relationships between state laws and municipal behaviorand to identify potential policy solutions. These include Harvard Law Schools Criminal Justice Policy Program, home to the National Criminal Justice Debt Initiative; 15 Reform advocates and researchers can also use this report to pinpoint specific factors, or categories of factors, that may be contributing to the presence, or relative absence, of fines and fees abuse in a state. (As described above, the category A scores omit factor A2.) For example, in its report on the circumstances leading up to the Ferguson unrest, the DOJ described the Ferguson municipal courts revenue-generating focus and practices, concluding, the municipal court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. Para 630 at p 101, LSA-RS 14:7; State v Wilcoxon 26, 126 (La App 2d Cir 06/22/194), 639 So 2d 385, 390, writ denied, 94-1961 (La 12?16/94), 648 So 2d 386; State v Ladner 619 So 2d 1144 (La App 1st Cir 1993), writ denied; State v Martin 694 So 2d 1209, 29,352, 29,433 (La App 2 Cir 5/13/97). States can restrain this practice by banning it and offering procedural protections to the accused. But states can also curb municipalities directly. As of 1989, the Montana Code provided that: See also the Iowa Code Annotated, West Pub Co, 1994, vol 17, p 75. This includes cases in both state and municipal courts where applicable. Where municipalities do not have their own courts, they can still receive fines from ordinance violations, though any fees go to the state court processing the violations. This page was last edited on 17 March 2023, at 11:24. This may discourage municipalities from using code enforcement for financial gain rather than public safety. 15,000) at $2,642,200 and Tucson (pop. Unbeknownst to Jim, the friend he had hired to mow the lawn died shortly after he left town. The more cases subject to license suspension, the more widespread the potential to coerce immediate payment of fees. Second, states can also protect people before they get to court by allowing discovery in ordinance cases (factor E2). This reduces the likelihood of return trips to court to pay the correct amount as well as the risk of incurring additional fees for late payments. A jury trial permits the accused to be tried by impartial third parties, rather than by municipal judges who may face municipal pressure to convict. Contact Municipal Violation Lawyers serving Hackensack, Morristown, Newark, & New Brunswick. As a result, in those states, courts and municipalities may have wide leeway to use incarceration and other harsh methods to extract fines and fees for financial gain. As discussed above, not all factors use the same scales of measurement. This protects people who legitimately cannot pay. Table 2: Overall and Category Scores by State (ranked lowest to highest by overall score). The Methods section offers details on how we developed the factors and their scales, as well as a list of all 52 factors. 36 The authors thank the following individuals for their contributions. Doravilles heavy reliance on citation revenue requires city police to find violations to generate those funds. The U.S. Constitutions prohibition on incarceration for inability to pay may be better observed where states include in their laws the requirement for ability-to-pay hearings. Providing notice of the right to counsel enables people to exercise that right. If the state cannot require municipalities to furnish new or additional services without providing a corresponding source of funding, municipalities may face less fiscal stress and, in turn, place less pressure on municipal courts to raise funds by levying fines and fees on people. Like district courts, municipal courts only . As described in the introduction, some of the 52 factors, or indicators, are self-evidently related to revenue generation through fines and fees, while others are less obvious. If permitted, municipalities may outsource fine collection to private entities that violate the U.S. Constitutions prohibition on threatening incarceration for inability to pay. All told, 28 states permit municipal courts. However, the potential for diversion is most acute in the 10 states where municipalities are allowed their own courts and can regulate activities the state already regulates. As Table 1 indicates, the one notable exception is category A, which yielded an alpha of 0.45. Clicking on a state will take readers to the full results for that state. the Southern Poverty Law Center; 20 IJ occasionally participates in cases that we arent litigating, but that have important implications for our mission. 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