St. Louis City settles municipal court fees suit for $750K

• By Rebecca Rivas

The City of St. Louis must refund $750,400 to the 21,000 people who paid “warrant recall fees” in the past seven years. On July 19, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge David Dowd gave final approval on a class-action lawsuit settlement with the city – which also deemed that St. Louis can never charge these fees again.

This is the first of nine total lawsuits that a group of lawyers filed against municipalities for similar court fees.

“As we’ve all heard since Ferguson, there are many municipalities that engage in what has been termed by some as ‘for-profit policing,’” said Erich Vieth, of Campbell Law firm. “That’s one of the big reasons we were attracted to this case.”

In St. Louis, if you missed a court date regarding a warrant fee, the court would charge you an extra fee of $35 for the first warrant and $10 for every subsequent warrant to reschedule the court date. The plaintiff in the case, Brandon Wann, paid this fee after he got pulled over for speeding in 2013. When he arrived half an hour late for his court date, a warrant had already been issued for his arrest. To cancel the warrant and reschedule his date, Wann had to pay $55 or face jail time.

In 2014, a team of lawyers – that included Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics and ArchCity Defenders – took up Wann’s case in a class-action suit, arguing that these fees are not acceptable under the Missouri state statute.

Wann will receive $1,500 as part of the settlement. The other 21,000 people will receive a little over half of what they paid in fees. The lawyers will receive $249,889, which will be taken out of a portion of each of the refunded fees.

“We are hoping that this case, being the first of its kind, will encourage other municipalities to settle,” Vieth said.

Vieth said they are suing Ferguson, Florissant, Pine Lawn, Jennings and others cities that collected millions in these fees. Since the suits started, the cities have stopped the practice.

St. Louis was the first city to agree to refund the fees, though it refunded only 75 percent of the $1.1 million it collected between December 11, 2009 and February 15, 2016.

Vieth said no one could pinpoint when the court began charging the fee, but it most likely was before technology made rescheduling court dates a matter of “clicking a button.”

“It’s easy in the computer age,” he said. “So saying you can pay $35 to come into court and pay your fine doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

If you paid a warrant cancellation fee related to the city’s municipal court, you can find more information about this settlement at https://secure.dahladmin.com/WANN.

Jennings settles over fines and fees

Since Michael Brown Jr.’s death, the municipal courts in the region have come under scrutiny for using the justice system to bulk up the city’s general revenue.

Last week Jennings, a municipality that neighbors Ferguson, agreed to pay $4.7 million to compensate about 2,000 people who served jail time for not paying fines and fees related to traffic and other minor violations.

SLU Law Legal Clinics and ArchCity Defenders were also involved in bringing forth this legal settlement, which received preliminary approval in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on July 13. The team of lawyers filed the suit on February 2015, arguing that the city’s policy of locking up majority poor and African-American residents for unpaid fines is unconstitutional.

The Jennings settlement outlines that if residents do not pay their fines, the city will refer the debts to a civil debt collector, which is allowable under state law. The “payment docket” is unconstitutional, the settlement stated.

Thomas Harvey, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, said there are about 500,000 people nationwide sitting in jail solely because they cannot afford a monetary payment to buy their freedom.

Every year, 11 million people cycle through local jails for the same reason, he said.

“They languish in these jails under terrible conditions,” he said. “That’s because of the scourge known as cash bail.”

Originally, the sole purpose of bail was to ensure that the defendant appears at court, he said. The law has developed to include a consideration of the safety of the community. There is overwhelming evidence to show it is a costly practice, both in terms of the cost of pretrial detention and the cost to the community in lost wages and collateral consequences.

“That policy must end,” he said. “We are working town by town for it to end. If you think there is injustice in the criminal justice system, you’re wrong. It is functioning exactly how it’s designed to function.”

The City of St. Louis must refund $750,400 to the 21,000 people who paid “warrant recall fees” in the past seven years. St. Louis Circuit Court Judge David Dowd gave final approval today on a class-action lawsuit settlement with the city – which also deemed that St. Louis city can never charge these fees again.

This is the first of nine total lawsuits that a group of lawyers filed against municipalities for similar court fees.

“As we’ve all heard since Ferguson, there are many municipalities that engage in what has been termed by some as for-profit policing,” said Erich Vieth, of Campbell Law firm. “That’s one of the big reasons we were attracted to this case.”

In St. Louis city, if you missed a court date regarding a warrant fee, the court would charge you an extra fee of $35 for the first warrant and $10 for every subsequent warrant to reschedule the court date. The plaintiff in the case, Brandon Wann, paid this fee after he got pulled over for speeding in 2013. When he arrived half an hour late for his court date, a warrant had already been issued for his arrest. To cancel the warrant and reschedule his date, Wann had to pay $55 in total or face jail time.

In 2014, a team of lawyers – that included Saint Louis Law Clinic and Arch City Defenders – took up Wann’s case in a class-action suit, arguing that these fees are not acceptable under the Missouri state statute.

Wann will receive $1,500 as part of the settlement. The other 21,000 people will receive a little over half of what they paid in fees. The lawyers will receive $249,889, which will be taken out of a portion of each of the refunded fees.

“We are hoping that this case, being the first of its kind, will encourage other municipalities to settle,” Vieth said.

Vieth said they’re suing Ferguson, Florissant, Pine Lawn, Jennings and others cities who collected millions in these fees. Since the suits started, the cities have stopped the practice.

St. Louis was the first city to agree to refund the fees, though only 75 percent of the $1.1 million it collected between Dec. 11, 2009 and Feb. 15, 2016.

Vieth said no one could pinpoint when the court began charging the fee, but it most likely was before technology made rescheduling court dates a matter of “clicking a button.”

“It’s easy in the computer age,” he said. “So saying you can pay $35 to come into court and pay your fine doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Since Michael Brown Jr.’s death, the municipal courts in the region have come under scrutiny for using the justice system to bulk up the city’s general revenue.

Last week Jennings, a municipality that neighbors Ferguson, agreed to pay $4.7 million to compensate about 2,000 people who served jail time for not paying fines and fees related to traffic and other minor violations.

SLU Law Clinic and Arch City Defenders was also involved in bringing forth this legal settlement, which received preliminary approval in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on July 13. The team of lawyers filed the suit on February 2015, which argued that the city’s debtor’s jail of locking up majority poor and African-American residents for unpaid fines is unconstitutional.

The Jennings settlement outlines that if residents do not pay their fines, the city will refer the debts to a civil debt collector, which is allowable under state law. The “payment docket” is unconstitutional, the settlement stated.

Thomas Harvey, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders, a non-profit law firm, said around the country, there are about 500,000 people sitting in jail solely because they cannot afford a monetary payment to buy their freedom.

Every year, 11 million people cycle through local jails for the same reason, he said.

“They languish in these jails under terrible conditions,” he said. “That’s because of the scourge known as cash bail.”

Originally, the sole purpose of bail was to ensure the defendant appears at court, he said. The law has developed to include a consideration of the safety of the community. There is overwhelming evidence to show it is a costly practice both in terms of the cost of pretrial detention and the cost to the community in lost wages and collateral consequences.

“That policy must end,” he said. “We are working town by town for it to end. If you think there is a justice in the criminal justice system, you’re wrong. It is functioning exactly how it’s designed to function.”

If you paid a warrant cancellation fee related to the city municipal court, you can find more information about this settlement at https://secure.dahladmin.com/WANN

SOURCE: The St. Louis American

WRITER: Rebecca Rivas