Module 3 Summary

Being comfortable engaging with defendants about their financial situation is essential to conducting ability to pay assessments. Bench cards, calculators, forms to collect financial information, and assistance from counsel or other court services can support judicial determinations of ability to pay and can help jurisdictions collect information accurately and efficiently about a person’s financial status. However, providing the defendant a meaningful opportunity to be heard by the court on their ability to pay is fundamental to providing equal justice, because it gives the court the opportunity to hear about information that might not be collected by a form, calculator, or other out-of-court mechanism and gives the person an opportunity to explain what they can reasonably pay.

In the next module we will discuss the use of non-monetary sanctions or “alternative sanctions.” Conducting a thorough ability to pay assessment may reveal that the use of alternative sanctions best serves the underlying problem or highlights existing positive behavior and meaningfully meets the requirements to impose consequences if the fine or fee is not waived through the assessment.

Resources:

Begin Module 4