Best Practices for the Collection of Traffic Fines in the Edmonds Municipal Court

The collection of overdue fines in state courts throughout the United States is a complex problem. Significantly, large overdue balances on many state courts' books present an ineffective judicial system to legislators and to the public. The cost of justice is extremely high and requires considerable expenditure of public funds. This project will identify a variety of techniques and tools that can be used by the courts to collect traffic fines. In Washington, the local and state governments are responsible for paying the cost of adjudicating most legal controversy arising from violations of city ordinances and state statutes, c.f. Revised Codes of Washington State (RCW) 3.46.030 statute. 1 A small percentage of these costs are recouped through payment of fines by the assessed defendants, who are convicted of a crime or found responsible for an infraction. The goal of this project is to pinpoint procedures which courts can legally use to collect traffic fines. One objective is to identify techniques that can be used to encourage defendants to pay their fines on, or before, the due date. Another objective is to link special methods that are used by the private sector to procedures that can be used by all courts. The final objective is for trial courts in other states to be able to use this research paper as a reference tool. 1 It should be noted that when deciding what government agency has jurisdiction over a case the 2000 Revised Codes of Washington (RCW) can be used as a guiding tool. RCW 3.46.030 Jurisdiction: A municipal department shall have exclusive jurisdiction of matter arising from ordinances of the city and no jurisdiction of other matter except as conferred by statute.