Module 2 Summary

Ideally, legal financial obligations are assessed at sentencing. This results in better compliance by the defendant who is better able to meet the obligations and reduces the need for later hearings. However, where circumstances change, defendants and the court benefit from ability to pay hearings at a later point, whether a prior assessment was made or not.

However, no defendant may be incarcerated for failure to pay without determination: there is no flexibility on this point.

In the next module we will discuss the factors considered in the assessments, regardless of when they are made.