This is freaking ridiculous!!! $1000 tax fine for improper lane change!?!?!?!
VA can kiss my azz!!!
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=127172&ran=8101
Bad-driver fines a potential gold mine for connected law firms
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT FILE PHOTO
Virginia’s new statewide transportation funding plan is bad news for bad drivers. Come July 1, they’ll get hit with big new fines for such infractions as reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.
But the hefty penalties could be a bonanza for the politically connected law firms that chase down unpaid court fines.
In all but one city in South Hampton Roads, these firms have exclusive contracts that pay them as much as 30 percent of the amount collected.
One of them, Huff, Poole & Mahoney of Virginia Beach, earned more than $2 million in collection fees in fiscal 2006.
What a DUI fine will cost
A first-offense DUI conviction typically brings a $250 fine; the new law tacks on an additional $2,250 after July 1.
How fines are collected
Municipalities have the option of outsourcing collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges less and collects a greater percentage than private collectors. However, some cities - including four local ones - contract to private firms, which can earn as much as 30 percent of the amount collected.
The contracts are awarded by local commonwealth’s attorneys, who get campaign contributions from the lawyers they hire.
Most Virginia localities, including Suffolk, farm out the collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges lower fees and has a higher collection rate than the private law firms.
That works out to be the best deal for the taxpayers, Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson says. None of his counterparts elsewhere in Hampton Roads could explain how using private collection agents is more cost-effective than using the state service.
However, they all agree on one thing: After July 1, there will be more money to collect. Much more.
The new fines, called “civil remedial fees,” are in the range of 10 times the fines typically meted out now by local judges. For example, a typical fine for reckless driving is $100; the new penalty, to be imposed on top of the existing fine, is $1,050. A first-offense DUI conviction typically brings a $250 fine; the new law tacks on an additional $2,250.
The new fines are mandatory. Judges have no discretion to lower or suspend them.
“It’s going to have a significant financial impact on some people,” Ferguson said. “And if they can’t pay, what will happen is, their licenses will be revoked and then they’ll be driving around on revoked licenses. Because they’ll owe so many fines and costs, they’ll almost never get out from under it.”
The new fines are spread out in three equal annual installments. The first is payable to the court upon conviction, the second and third to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The projected annual revenue to the state is $65 million.
The new law does not say how the penalties are to be collected, and details are still being worked out.
Under existing law, when court fines go unpaid for 40 days, they become the responsibility of the local commonwealth’s attorney, the elected lawyer who prosecutes state crimes. A few prosecutors handle the collection work in-house, but most outsource it.
Since 1994 they have had the option of farming the work out to the state Department of Taxation. Last year, 102 of the state’s 126 localities chose that option.
Ferguson, the Suffolk prosecutor, has been in office nearly 30 years. He once used a private collection agent but turned the work over to the Department of Taxation years ago and has no regrets.
“They had an excellent collection record, and it was half the cost, so the taxpayers got back more money,” he said.
Statewide, the Department of Taxation achieved a 76.7 percent collection rate last year and charged 17.3 percent of the amount collected in fees, according to statistics compiled by Virginia’s Compensation Board. Every private collection agent collected less and charged more.
Except for Suffolk, every city in South Hampton Roads uses private law firms to collect unpaid court fines.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney, Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s old firm, handles more of the work than any other firm in the state. It has the collection contracts in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, which brought in more than $1.6 million in fees in fiscal year. Additional contracts in Chesterfield and Essex counties pushed the firm’s total collection revenue to more than $2 million.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has a staff of two lawyers and 26 non-lawyers devoted to court collection work, according to David Zobel, the attorney who runs the unit. The firm compiled a collection rate of 58.9 percent and charged 29.2 percent in fees last year. The firm has given $6,000 in campaign contributions to Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant since 2001.
Bryant said he has put the collection contract out for bid once since he took office in 2000. Huff, Poole & Mahoney was the only bidder. The firm’s campaign contributions were “absolutely not” a factor in the awarding of the contract, he said.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has also given $1,500 in contributions to Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr. Roland “Bucky” Dodson, the collection agent for Portsmouth, has given $980 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley. The Glasser and Glasser law firm, the collection agent for Norfolk, has given $250 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Doyle.
The standard state contract for court collection agents includes a section in which the agent certifies he has made no payment to “any public employee having official responsibility for making the award of this contract.”
Local commonwealth’s attorneys said they do not believe that provision applies to campaign contributions.
“I don’t think it’s a violation because that’s a political contribution,” Bryant said. “It’s not to me personally. It’s not anything that I benefit from personally.”
The local prosecutors said a big factor in their selection of collection agents was their local presence and the convenience it affords debtors.
“I wanted a street-level, retail presence so that people who owed money had somewhere they could go and talk to somebody,” Doyle said.
Doyle’s collection agent, Glasser and Glasser, is across the street from the Norfolk courts complex. “What’s good about private collection agents is the service to the constituents,” said Mark Groves, the attorney who runs Glasser and Glasser’s collection unit.
The private collection agents say one reason for the Department of Taxation’s higher collection rate is that it has access to state databases – useful for locating debtors and identifying their employers – that are not available to private agents.
That’s not so, said Kathy Lohr, who runs the Department of Taxation’s court debt collection unit. She said her office has no collection tools that private agents don’t have.
“I think one of the big differences is that we’re just set up strictly to collect court fines and fees. We don’t do anything else,” Lohr said. “Also, the second biggest advantage I think we have here is that we do not do it for profit. So our contingency fee is quite a bit less than the private attorneys’ fees.”
How lucrative is the work? Ask Dodson, a solo practitioner who collects Portsmouth’s unpaid court fines from his downtown law office with the help of two assistants.
The city contract, which he has held since 2002, brought Dodson $300,000 in fees last year even though he collected less than 30 percent of the fines owed.
“It has paid off for me,” Dodson said. “It’s such a volume, you just wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t have believed it, either.”
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, [email protected]
VA can kiss my azz!!!
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=127172&ran=8101
Bad-driver fines a potential gold mine for connected law firms
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT FILE PHOTO
Virginia’s new statewide transportation funding plan is bad news for bad drivers. Come July 1, they’ll get hit with big new fines for such infractions as reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.
But the hefty penalties could be a bonanza for the politically connected law firms that chase down unpaid court fines.
In all but one city in South Hampton Roads, these firms have exclusive contracts that pay them as much as 30 percent of the amount collected.
One of them, Huff, Poole & Mahoney of Virginia Beach, earned more than $2 million in collection fees in fiscal 2006.
What a DUI fine will cost
A first-offense DUI conviction typically brings a $250 fine; the new law tacks on an additional $2,250 after July 1.
How fines are collected
Municipalities have the option of outsourcing collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges less and collects a greater percentage than private collectors. However, some cities - including four local ones - contract to private firms, which can earn as much as 30 percent of the amount collected.
The contracts are awarded by local commonwealth’s attorneys, who get campaign contributions from the lawyers they hire.
Most Virginia localities, including Suffolk, farm out the collection work to the state Department of Taxation, which charges lower fees and has a higher collection rate than the private law firms.
That works out to be the best deal for the taxpayers, Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson says. None of his counterparts elsewhere in Hampton Roads could explain how using private collection agents is more cost-effective than using the state service.
However, they all agree on one thing: After July 1, there will be more money to collect. Much more.
The new fines, called “civil remedial fees,” are in the range of 10 times the fines typically meted out now by local judges. For example, a typical fine for reckless driving is $100; the new penalty, to be imposed on top of the existing fine, is $1,050. A first-offense DUI conviction typically brings a $250 fine; the new law tacks on an additional $2,250.
The new fines are mandatory. Judges have no discretion to lower or suspend them.
“It’s going to have a significant financial impact on some people,” Ferguson said. “And if they can’t pay, what will happen is, their licenses will be revoked and then they’ll be driving around on revoked licenses. Because they’ll owe so many fines and costs, they’ll almost never get out from under it.”
The new fines are spread out in three equal annual installments. The first is payable to the court upon conviction, the second and third to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The projected annual revenue to the state is $65 million.
The new law does not say how the penalties are to be collected, and details are still being worked out.
Under existing law, when court fines go unpaid for 40 days, they become the responsibility of the local commonwealth’s attorney, the elected lawyer who prosecutes state crimes. A few prosecutors handle the collection work in-house, but most outsource it.
Since 1994 they have had the option of farming the work out to the state Department of Taxation. Last year, 102 of the state’s 126 localities chose that option.
Ferguson, the Suffolk prosecutor, has been in office nearly 30 years. He once used a private collection agent but turned the work over to the Department of Taxation years ago and has no regrets.
“They had an excellent collection record, and it was half the cost, so the taxpayers got back more money,” he said.
Statewide, the Department of Taxation achieved a 76.7 percent collection rate last year and charged 17.3 percent of the amount collected in fees, according to statistics compiled by Virginia’s Compensation Board. Every private collection agent collected less and charged more.
Except for Suffolk, every city in South Hampton Roads uses private law firms to collect unpaid court fines.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney, Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s old firm, handles more of the work than any other firm in the state. It has the collection contracts in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, which brought in more than $1.6 million in fees in fiscal year. Additional contracts in Chesterfield and Essex counties pushed the firm’s total collection revenue to more than $2 million.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has a staff of two lawyers and 26 non-lawyers devoted to court collection work, according to David Zobel, the attorney who runs the unit. The firm compiled a collection rate of 58.9 percent and charged 29.2 percent in fees last year. The firm has given $6,000 in campaign contributions to Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant since 2001.
Bryant said he has put the collection contract out for bid once since he took office in 2000. Huff, Poole & Mahoney was the only bidder. The firm’s campaign contributions were “absolutely not” a factor in the awarding of the contract, he said.
Huff, Poole & Mahoney has also given $1,500 in contributions to Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr. Roland “Bucky” Dodson, the collection agent for Portsmouth, has given $980 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley. The Glasser and Glasser law firm, the collection agent for Norfolk, has given $250 to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Doyle.
The standard state contract for court collection agents includes a section in which the agent certifies he has made no payment to “any public employee having official responsibility for making the award of this contract.”
Local commonwealth’s attorneys said they do not believe that provision applies to campaign contributions.
“I don’t think it’s a violation because that’s a political contribution,” Bryant said. “It’s not to me personally. It’s not anything that I benefit from personally.”
The local prosecutors said a big factor in their selection of collection agents was their local presence and the convenience it affords debtors.
“I wanted a street-level, retail presence so that people who owed money had somewhere they could go and talk to somebody,” Doyle said.
Doyle’s collection agent, Glasser and Glasser, is across the street from the Norfolk courts complex. “What’s good about private collection agents is the service to the constituents,” said Mark Groves, the attorney who runs Glasser and Glasser’s collection unit.
The private collection agents say one reason for the Department of Taxation’s higher collection rate is that it has access to state databases – useful for locating debtors and identifying their employers – that are not available to private agents.
That’s not so, said Kathy Lohr, who runs the Department of Taxation’s court debt collection unit. She said her office has no collection tools that private agents don’t have.
“I think one of the big differences is that we’re just set up strictly to collect court fines and fees. We don’t do anything else,” Lohr said. “Also, the second biggest advantage I think we have here is that we do not do it for profit. So our contingency fee is quite a bit less than the private attorneys’ fees.”
How lucrative is the work? Ask Dodson, a solo practitioner who collects Portsmouth’s unpaid court fines from his downtown law office with the help of two assistants.
The city contract, which he has held since 2002, brought Dodson $300,000 in fees last year even though he collected less than 30 percent of the fines owed.
“It has paid off for me,” Dodson said. “It’s such a volume, you just wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t have believed it, either.”
Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, [email protected]
