New Jersey Archives - Fines and Fees Justice Center

Officials: Prison Inmates In Essex County Should Know About This Form

The Essex County Board of County Commissioners recently passed a resolution to help incarcerated people learn how to resolve outstanding court fines, warrants, and detainers while in prison. Before release, …

New Jersey A5587: Eliminates fees, liens, and warrants issued for Public Defender services

New Jersey Mayor Phil Murphy signed a bill eliminating fees, liens, and warrants associated with public defender services in the state. The new law also applies retroactively to all unpaid …

NJ S266

The New Jersey legislature introduced a bill that would eliminate driver’s license suspensions for failure to answer or appear in response to a failure to appear notice, or failure to pay …

Why Inequitable And Burdensome Court-Issued Fines And Fees Are A Health Issue—And What Health And Policy Leaders Can Do About It

Social determinants like court debt can negatively influence an individual’s health. Through healthcare hotspotting, the Rutgers Law School/Camden Coalition, Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) serves individuals with various medical and legal issues …

Individual and Geographic Variation in Driver’s License Suspensions: Evidence of Disparities by Race, Ethnicity and Income

A suspended license can severely limit an individual’s access to healthcare services and social and economic opportunities. However, many states use driver’s license suspension as a compliance tool for violations …

Trapped: Most States Let Courts Fine Teenagers. The Debt is Taking Down their Whole Families.

This article examines the use of hefty punishment fines and the impact of those fines, and fees, on families. The article highlights the story of a New Jersey teen locked …

New Jersey S48: Concerns juvenile incarceration and parole

This bill eliminates certain fines imposed on juveniles and eliminates New Jersey courts' discretion to impose fines on juveniles as a penalty for delinquency.

Report of the New Jersey Supreme Court Working Group on the Municipal Courts

Between 2017 and 2018, the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Court Operations, Fines, and Fees conducted a review of New Jersey’s municipal court practices. This report provides an overview of historical reform efforts, modern judicial reform efforts, and makes 17 recommendations related to equal access, fairness, and judicial independence.

Kavadas et al. v. Martinez et al.

In New Jersey, driver’s licenses were automatically suspended when bench warrants were issued to non-custodial parents for nonpayment of child support.

Order Authorizing Immediate Release of Defendants Arrested on Municipal Court Bench Warrants for Failure to Appear and Failure to Pay […]

In the summer of 2018, the top judge in Middlesex County, NJ ordered the release of individuals who were arrested and detained for failure to appear in municipal court over low-level offenses, like failure to pay parking tickets.