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(The Virginian-Pilot file photo) |
By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia’s new statewide transportation funding plan is bad news for bad drivers. Come July 1, they’ll get hit with big new fines for such infractions as reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.
But the hefty penalties could be a bonanza for the politically connected law firms that chase down unpaid court fines.
In all but one city in South Hampton Roads, these firms have exclusive contracts that pay them as much as 30 percent of the amount collected.
One of them, Huff, Poole & Mahoney of Virginia Beach, earned more than $2 million in collection fees in fiscal 2006.
The contracts are awarded by local commonwealth’s attorneys, who get campaign contributions from the lawyers they hire.
Most Virginia localities, including Suffolk, farm out the collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges lower fees and has a higher collection rate than the private law firms.
That works out to be the best deal for the taxpayers, Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson says. None of his counterparts elsewhere in Hampton Roads could explain how using private collection agents is more cost-effective than using the state service.
However, they all agree on one thing: After July 1, there will be more money to collect. Much more.
The new fines, called “civil remedial fees,” are in the range of 10 times the fines typically meted out now by local judges. For example, a typical fine for reckless driving is $100; the new penalty, to be imposed on top of the existing fine, is $1,050. A first-offense DUI conviction typically brings a $250 fine; the new law tacks on an additional $2,250.
The new fines are mandatory. Judges have no discretion to lower or suspend them.
“It’s going to have a significant financial impact on some people,” Ferguson said. “And if they can’t pay, what will happen is, their licenses will be revoked and then they’ll be driving around on revoked licenses. Because they’ll owe so many fines and costs, they’ll almost never get out from under it.”
The new fines are spread out in three equal annual installments. The first is payable to the court upon conviction, the second and third to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The projected annual revenue to the state is $65 million.
The new law does not say how the penalties are to be collected, and details are still being worked out.
Under existing law, when court fines go unpaid for 40 days, they become the responsibility of the local commonwealth’s attorney, the elected lawyer who prosecutes state crimes. A few prosecutors handle the collection work in-house, but most outsource it.
Since 1994 they have had the option of farming the work out to the state Department of Taxation. Last year, 102 of the state’s 126 localities chose that option.
Ferguson, the Suffolk prosecutor, has been in office nearly 30 years. He once used a private collection agent but turned the work over to the Department of Taxation years ago and has no regrets.
“They had an excellent collection record, and it was half the cost, so the taxpayers got back more money,” he said.
Statewide, the Department of Taxation achieved a 76.7 percent collection rate last year and charged 17.3 percent of the amount collected in fees, according to statistics compiled by Virginia’s Compensation Board. Every private collection agent collected less and charged more.
Except for Suffolk, every city in South Hampton Roads uses private law firms to collect unpaid court fines.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney, Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s old firm, handles more of the work than any other firm in the state. It has the collection contracts in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, which brought in more than $1.6 million in fees in fiscal year. Additional contracts in Chesterfield and Essex counties pushed the firm’s total collection revenue to more than $2 million.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has a staff of two lawyers and 26 non-lawyers devoted to court collection work, according to David Zobel, the attorney who runs the unit. The firm compiled a collection rate of 58.9 percent and charged 29.2 percent in fees last year. The firm has given $6,000 in campaign contributions to Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant since 2001.
Bryant said he has put the collection contract out for bid once since he took office in 2000. Huff, Poole & Mahoney was the only bidder. The firm’s campaign contributions were “absolutely not” a factor in the awarding of the contract, he said.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has also given $1,500 in contributions to Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr. Roland “Bucky” Dodson, the collection agent for Portsmouth, has given $980 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley. The Glasser and Glasser law firm, the collection agent for Norfolk, has given $250 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Doyle.
The standard state contract for court collection agents includes a section in which the agent certifies he has made no payment to “any public employee having official responsibility for making the award of this contract.”
Local commonwealth’s attorneys said they do not believe that provision applies to campaign contributions.
“I don’t think it’s a violation because that’s a political contribution,” Bryant said. “It’s not to me personally. It’s not anything that I benefit from personally.”
The local prosecutors said a big factor in their selection of collection agents was their local presence and the convenience it affords debtors.
“I wanted a street-level, retail presence so that people who owed money had somewhere they could go and talk to somebody,” Doyle said.
Doyle’s collection agent, Glasser and Glasser, is across the street from the Norfolk courts complex. “What’s good about private collection agents is the service to the constituents,” said Mark Groves, the attorney who runs Glasser and Glasser’s collection unit.
The private collection agents say one reason for the Department of Taxation’s higher collection rate is that it has access to state databases – useful for locating debtors and identifying their employers – that are not available to private agents.
That’s not so, said Kathy Lohr, who runs the Department of Taxation’s court debt collection unit. She said her office has no collection tools that private agents don’t have.
“I think one of the big differences is that we’re just set up strictly to collect court fines and fees. We don’t do anything else,” Lohr said. “Also, the second biggest advantage I think we have here is that we do not do it for profit. So our contingency fee is quite a bit less than the private attorneys’ fees.”
How lucrative is the work? Ask Dodson, a solo practitioner who collects Portsmouth’s unpaid court fines from his downtown law office with the help of two assistants.
The city contract, which he has held since 2002, brought Dodson $300,000 in fees last year even though he collected less than 30 percent of the fines owed.
“It has paid off for me,” Dodson said. “It’s such a volume, you just wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t have believed it, either.”
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Who voted for this?
Remember!!: Voted for HB3202: Delegates-Albo, Alexander, Athey (intended), BaCote, Bell, Bulova, Byron, Callahan, Caputo, Carrico, Cline, Cosgrove, Cox, Crockett-Stark, Dance, Dudley, Fralin, Gilbert, Griffith, Hamilton, Hargrove, Hogan, Howell, A.T., Hugo, Hurt, Iaquinto, Ingram, Janis, Jones, S.C., Kilgore, Landes, Lewis, Lingamfelter, Lohr, Marsden, Marshall, D.W., May, McQuigg, Miller, J.H., Miller, P.J., Morgan, Nixon, Nutter, O'Bannon, Oder, Orrock, Peace, Poisson, Purkey, Putney, Reid, Rust, Saxman, Scott, E.T., Shannon, Sherwood, Sickles, Suit, Tata, Waddell, Wardrup, Welch, Wittman, Wright, Speaker (passed 64-34) Now they can pay dearly for mistakes too! Vote them out first chance you get. Please join the online repeal petition.
There is a better way
About time!!!
I hear ya Garin L. its seriously about time they cracked down on all these "bad" drivers. Now maybe everyone will slow down a tad instead of zipping past me like I'm parked. Oh now if they can only get a handle on those cellphone drivers we'll be making some serious progress. I for one vote up the fines more, that should fix everything just "fine".
Good
It's about time the leash tightens up around here, if you can't pay the traffic fine slow down. I've lived here in this area for 7 years now and all I have noticed is there are about 1 million drivers any given day all in a hurry to get nowhere at the same time. Remember what you had to do to get your license to begin with. Hang up the phone, use your turn signal, be courtious to your fellow motorists, and quit cry-sacking.
Forced to break the Law to pay a fine
Do they really think the people that drive the worst are only the ones that are rich? All they have done is made it so now kids and poorer have to rob a house or another 7-11 in order to pay their fines so they can move on to their new life that Virginia forced them to do in order to continue driving.......Crime!!! The penalty must reflect the crime. Maybe we should start putting tax evadors or insider trading criminals like Martha on Death Row!!!!
The Problem...
As I see it is that its going to exponentially increase the number of Drivers w/ suspended lisenses on the road. Does the State assume that scofflaws are rich ? When the penalties reach a point where the 'average citizen' cant pay them...more 'crime' will follow (driving on suspended permits). I bet Geico's rates are going back up in Virginia..
Imagine That!!!!!
I have been here all of my life.Va. just makes me sick,First they find it acceptable for my x wife to have an affair with the neighbors husband,so they gave her everything that I worked for,now this legalized stealing.what next are they going to regulate how much air you can breath,This law is just utterly redicoulis.this is the most money hungry state I have ever seen.All I have to say is good bye Va!I have bought a home in NC.They will not get anymore of my hard earned cash. This law is not going to do but cause more people to drive with no license,which means no insurance.Brace yourself for even more cost out of everyones pockets.
Unbelieveable
I feel so badly for the residence of the Commonweath of VA
Granted, there are a lot of bad drivers on the road, but if legislators think these new laws will change anything, they are seriously in denial! I mean, we don't live in a perfect world, and no matter how careful one tries to be, messed up things will and do happen! The only thing this new law will do, is financially strap a lot of people to the point where they will take the chance and drive without licenses anyway, or cost the jobs of those who will follow the rules and not drive until the fines are paid off, financially strapping them as well. I just don't see any good coming from this at all.
Now I'm sorry
Now I'm sorry I went to all the hassle of changing my Delaware DL to a VA one when we moved here. I haven't had a moving violation in over 15 years, but these penalties are uttely ridiculous. The fact those from out of state just smacks of something wrong. at any given time there are probably more people on the roads of the Eastern Shore from out of state, than live here, they should be contributing to fixing our roads. I'm in total agreement with the other former Delawarean, taxwise we are by far better off in Virginia than in Delaware.
The Problem............
As I see it is that its going to exponentially increase the number of Drivers w/ suspended lisenses on the road. Does the State assume that scofflaws are rich ? When the penalties reach a point where the 'average citizen' cant pay them....more 'crime' will follow (driving on suspended permits). I bet Geico's rates are going back up in Virginia....
Who Chooses the Collection Agent?
Your side bar is incorrect:
"Municipalities have the option of outsourcing collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges less and collects a greater percentage than private collectors. However, some cities - including four local ones - contract to private firms, which can earn as much as 30 percent of the amount collected."
The city government does not choose the collection agent. That decision rests solely with the elected Commonwealth's Attorney.
move back up north, go ahead.
I'm tired of hearing about people moving out of here. Try moving back to my home state of Delaware where the toatl property tax including school tax in my hometown is $4.19 per $100. The gas tax is 12 cents more per gallon than here even after the latest bill. You have pay more for registration, inspections, etc.
Ignorance of drivers
Sure, "if you do the crime, pay the fine". I'm down for that. Let's review the ignorance of the majority of VA drivers who recite that. General speed limit is 55. You ever notice that when troopers are going 70, people around them typically match their speed and the trooper doesn't care? It's called flow of traffic. I don't recall the precise section of code, but traffic is to always yield to a greater flow of traffic (regardless of if their speed is greater than the speed limit, and regardless of lane). You are to yield to the right. So the next time you think you're obeying the law by doing 55/60 (regardless of the lane) and inhibiting someone behind you from passing who's clearly faster than you, you're actually breaking a misdemeanor general wreckless classification. So that, $1,200+ fine, applies to you too. Good job, nothing like being ignorant of your actions and being half of the problem. Before judging the people, study the law. I have been for years.
VA makes me sick
Virginia spends more time trying to figure out how to arrest ,tax,penalize and police their citizens than they do trying to make VA an all around better state for locals and tourists. I meet people from out of town all the time who are either visiting or living here for a couple years and the hate it here ! All they talk about is how Virginia's laws are ridiculous and they won't ever come back . This state is so uptight its pathetic.
Judging the comments
Citizens in the commonwealth are surely getting sick of a continuation of city governments exploitation of taxpayers. Things must change and quickly.The citizens who are saying they will leave should try and move their frustration into some activism . Whatever side of the political fense you exist, it seems high time to deal with all of these issues which seek to exploit the everyday citizen. It cannot be denied any further. I would like to see the Pilot ask its public how the paper could further serve the interests of the individuals who seem fed up with this additude from lawmakers that(We will just take it from th citizen) So I put tht request to the Pilot. Step it up and unify the community
I have an idea.......
Don't do the crime if you can't afford the fine.....crime, crime, crime, anybody reading this? Shame on you for being a criminal, don't be a criminal, the fines should keep going up until the crime goes away, seems pretty simple to me? Other people making money off collections, good!! I think we all should make money off of people that don't know how to abide by the law!! Don't like the rules under this roof, move out!! I don't want to be on the road with even one other reckless/DUI driver out there, there are too many other options out there to be driving reckless/DUI, don't we put this laws in place for a reason, yes!!! To prevent this sort of activity!!! It's one of the reasons why I like living here, good rules!!!
Here's a novel idea...
Follow to the rules of the road, and you won't have to worry about it. I'm personally glad to see these stiffer fines... perhaps it'll begin to weed out the reckless idiots behind the wheel.
Stop driving like animals then and there will be no problems
"Virginia's new statewide transportation funding plan is bad news for bad drivers. Come July 1, they'll get hit with big new fines for such infractions as reckless driving and driving while intoxicated" I have a brilliant idea! Stop driving like you are on a Nascar race track and stop drinking and driving. I for one am sick and tired of the "Nascar Syndrom" I see around here. People tailgating, changing multiple lanes just to get 5 seconds further up the road and turning without signaling. And the amountof red lights run around here is amazing. If people would stop driving like idiots, they would not have to worry about fines for "bad driver" Duh! I really hope that this causes more people to think before they get behind the wheel of a car and realize that a car can be a wonderful tool, but also a dangerous weapon and needs to be used responsibly. Just ask people who have been been in an accident or had a friend or family member killed because someone was driving recklessly.
Attorneys who didn't get a cut are upset...
...aren't they? To them it appears to be about the $$$ not justice for all. If the article is accurate, one might conclude that many are profiting from this situation. That's disturbing and requires much deeper investigation.
This stinks
...just like greed and corruption. Remember how your represantitive voted on this issue when the next election comes around.
Total
This is the most stupid, ridiculous crock i have ever heard. What are we now!?!? A police state!? SOO convenient they run the story one week out. Virginia, you've crossed the line. This is what you get when our "representatives" of the state think we're morons. This is nothing but a tax on the people, without calling it a tax. I have nothing against the DUI fine... but for misdemeanors and the lesser offenses... I have to say I truly despise the decision of the state and am livid with our Virginia. My views of you have lowered. I hope to God I can move from here as soon as I have the money... then again, my speedy escape may result in too many traffic fines.. and i'd have to spend the next year paying off traffic bills before i can flee yet again.
Vote Them all Out
The only way is too vote them all out of office especially the guys in Northern, Va who co-sponsered the bill. What the heck is going on here.
If you don't do the crime....then you don't have to do the fin
May I say it again....if you don't do the crime then you don't have to do the fine! Hear--hear to the car that blew my doors off this afternoon with his one finger salute (while I was doing the speed limit!) 55 does not mean 70...and suspended does not mean only driving to the grocery store.
We need more law enforcement
I'm all for anything that can make Hampton Roads safer for driving. I've lived in the area for over 20 years now and it gets more and more dangerous to drive, especially on our interstates. The biggest probem is lack of law enforcement. Without an adequate deterrent, most people today will not respect the law. The 55 mile an hour speed limit on our areas highways is treated as a joke and it's dangerous for anyone who is law abiding (and we are in a minority). So I fully support any penalties for law breakers but let's make sure we put enough law enforcement officers on the roads to make it effective.
Contact your representative
I found out about this law a few days ago from a car club I am associated with. The law has some catch all language that really could hurt a normal law abiding citizens who normally does everything right and just had a situation come up that would include them in the long list of infractions. Here is a copy of the bill:
http://www.courts.state.va.us/publications/hb_3202.pdf
The people who passed this did not so in our best interest as Virginian's and US citizens. Here is their website, make your feelings known and maybe we can get this new law overturned soon.
http://lwv-va.org/index.html
Fines are way over the Top!!
I couldn't believe what I was reading. These are the political corruption at its best. Make it a law then you can do it. That's the way to go! Its bad for everyone accept the lawyers with these law firms. I will move my business and family out of VA. The will hurt a lot of working class people. Doing it this way is wrong. It's wrong, wrong.
Easily avoidable
While I agree that the "civil remedial fees" are outrageously expensive(a third to half of the amount would be ok with me), and they'll most certainly be difficult to pay even in installments, there is an easy solution to avoid them; just don't speed, drink & drive, and keep your driver's license in good standing.
No brainer
All one has to do to avoid these fines is to not drive drunk,(which kills people), not drive recklessly, (which also kills people), and if unable to do that successfully, just pay the fine on time, (hopefully having not killed someone). Casey is free to move to any state he chooses, since it appears that he endorses folks either driving drunk, recklessly, or both...... Anyway, if convicted in Va. Beach, they could appeal to Circuit court and ask Judge Canada to throw the conviction out.
We're Outta Here
Thank you for helping us make up our minds. We have not had a car since 2001 but made use of the city bus system just fine. We were recently thinking about going ahead and buying a car since we're getting older. We certainly won't be doing so now. We're middle class (65k per year), and have a lot of medical bills to pay even though we have good insurance. We are both excellent drivers, but all it would take is one or two tickets and we'd be wiped out for months. No thanks. This was the final straw. We've lived here for 10 years, but will be looking for employment elsewhere. We couldn't believe the taxes here when we moved here, don't you know better than to tax your own citizens to death like that in an area that could easily take such revenue from tourists? Every other state that has big tourist attractions does. And now this latest rip-off is just insult to injury. Our out-of-state employment search starts Monday and should be no problem whatsoever. We're outta here. Buh-Bye.
Insane
This is the nail in the coffin on my decision to remain here or not after I retire from 20 years of military service next year. This state and it's taxes and it's amnesty cities are just i-n-s-a-n-e.