Criminal fees.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide details on the exact fees that will be repealed or how existing court orders and judgments will be affected by these changes.

Criminal Fees

This law removes the authority to collect many types of criminal fees, makes unpaid court-imposed costs unenforceable and vacates related judgments, exempts people sentenced to state prison or county jail from paying trial court filing fees, allows public entities to accept personal checks for criminal debts without certain conditions, and prohibits extra charges for returned checks.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the authority to collect many types of criminal fees that are charged after an arrest, prosecution, or conviction.
• Makes unpaid court-imposed costs unenforceable and vacates any portion of a judgment based on these costs.
• Exempts people sentenced to state prison or county jail from paying trial court filing fees related to their convictions.
• Allows public entities like the state and certain cities to accept personal checks for criminal debts without requiring specific conditions to be met.
• Prohibits public entities from charging extra costs when a check for criminal debt is returned.

Who It Names or Affects

• People who have been arrested, prosecuted, or convicted of crimes.
• Public entities like the state and certain cities that collect criminal fees.

Terms To Know

court-imposed costs

Fees ordered by a court as part of a criminal case.

vacated

To cancel or remove something, like a judgment or order.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify which fees are removed exactly.
• It is unclear how the changes will affect existing court orders and judgments.
• The bill does not address how public entities will recover costs for returned checks beyond prohibiting extra charges.

Official Summary Text

AB 2428, as amended, Celeste Rodriguez.
Criminal fees.
Existing law imposes various fees, contingent upon a criminal arrest, prosecution, or conviction, for the cost of administering the criminal justice system, including traffic violator school fees, costs for when a minor is adjudged a ward of the court, as specified, or costs incurred by a state or local agency for the disposal of various substances if the person is
a manufacturer
convicted of the sale, possession, or transportation
of a controlled substance, as specified.
This bill would repeal the authority to collect many of those fees, among others. The bill would make the unpaid balance of most court-imposed costs unenforceable and uncollectible and
would require any portion of a judgment imposed by those costs to be vacated. The bill would relieve a person who is sentenced to state prison or confined in a county jail from being required to pay any trial court filing fees or costs related to the person’s underlying criminal conviction.
Existing law requires, among others, the state and certain cities, to accept personal checks in addition to any other authorized form of payment drawn, as specified, for the payment of certain obligations if the person issuing the check meets specified conditions.
This bill would authorize those entities to accept personal checks, in addition to any other authorized form of payment, as payment for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding without regard to those conditions. The bill would prohibit a public entity from imposing a charge to recover processing and collection costs for returned checks for court-ordered debt
relating to a criminal proceeding.
The bill would make related findings and declarations.
The bill would also make various conforming changes.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF