Illinois HB 4594: The Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act

This Act implements key recommendations of the bipartisan Statutory Fee Task Force created by the General Assembly to study the current system of fines and fees in Illinois. Broadly speaking, the Act streamlines, standardizes, and reduces court fees in order to facilitate a sliding scale fee waiver for defendants who cannot afford to pay. (Without these changes, the sliding scale would have been severely limited.)

You can read the full text of HB 4594 here. 

Key Provisions

• Provides a procedure for people to request a full or partial waiver of criminal fees and fines based on their inability to pay.
• Standardizes court fees and fines into 13 schedules of potential assessments for criminal and traffic offenses and four schedules for civil court cases, which are further divided by the type of offense or case.
• Caps the maximum amount of money that can be assessed under each schedule.
• In misdemeanor traffic, conservation, and ordinance offenses, the arresting agency keeps the fine, and for other offenses, the fine goes to the county to defray costs of prosecution. In addition, fees collected by the Illinois State Police would be marked specifically for the funding of cadet training.