This 2015 Orlando Sentinel article describes how waiving surcharges assessed by collection agencies for one weekend led the Orange County Clerk of Courts to lower the rate these companies could charge going forward. After “about 860 people showed up and paid off more than half a million dollars in money owed,” the Clerk of Courts lowered the interest rate for overdue payments from 40 percent to 25 percent.
You can read the full article here.
Key Findings
- “For almost a decade, the clerk in Orange has referred cases to collection agencies if an attempt to pay the fee is not made within the first 90 days.”
- In September 2015, before the interest rate reduction, Orange County announced that it would stop “issuing arrest orders for people with unpaid fines who failed to appear in collections court,” which resulted in 21,000 outstanding arrest orders being quashed.
Author(s): Elyssa Cherney