Americans Are at Least $27.6 Billion in Debt to Courts
States and municipalities are increasingly relying on court fees as revenue streams, creating at least $27.6 billion in debt for Americans. To handle that debt's collection, those states and municipalities, and even the IRS, are increasingly turning to private firms, which can add up to 40 percent surcharges onto the fees.
Across the United States, court debt has ballooned as states have turned to court costs, fines, and fees as revenue streams. (Nik Shuliahin / Unsplash)
The calls would come at all hours of the day, sometimes as early as 6 AM. Whenever Matt Holland answered the phone, the nameless individual on the other end would be pushy and disparaging, then would turn menacing. The nature of the call was always the same: You have to pay your debt; there is no way out.
Years earlier, Holland, who now lives in Spring Hill, Florida, had been arrested and spent some time in prison for breaking into cars with friends to steal stereos. Upon his release, Holland found himself facing $3,000 in debt from state court fees. It wasn’t long before that debt was passed from the government to a private debt collection firm, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP.
Linebarger, Holland soon discovered, was unrelenting. The firm rang him constantly at inconvenient times, since state-owned debt isn’t restricted by federal debt collection rules that prohibit calls before 8 AM. The company flooded his mailbox with threatening letters, too.
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