Harris County has $80M in unpaid court fees
District clerk launches billing campaign for cash-strapped system
Harris County has an $80 million backlog of uncollected civil court fees dating back to the 1980s, new District Clerk Marilyn Burgess said, prompting her office to launch an aggressive collection effort.
Burgess said she was shocked when an employee told her shortly after her election in November that the county had stopped attempting to collect the fees in 2011 — a revelation that surprised the county’s auditor. She has launched a new collection effort, but only expects to successfully recoup about $20 million, from the past three years of billing.
“It’s important to the county, because if we collect that, that’s $20 million less that Commissioners Court has to assess in property taxes from the taxpayer,” Burgess said.
An influx of millions would provide a boost to the county court system, which is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey and is looking for ways to pay for a long-delayed new family courthouse.
Burgess, a certified public accountant, said her office will regularly bill those owing new fees going forward, to ensure the county does not again fall behind.
About 83 percent of the uncollected fees, she explained, are assigned to nonlawyers. Of this group, most are fees assigned in family-court cases while some are from county suits against delinquent property taxpayers and other civil matters. The remaining 17 percent are fees owed by attorneys for filings, such as appeals.
The district clerk maintains records for the county’s 94 criminal and civil
courts, in addition to summoning jurors. The office also is responsible for collecting court fees, which can range from less than $10 to several hundred dollars; such fees totaled $44 million last year. Most people pay fees assigned by the court, relieving Harris County of the need to mail a bill, Burgess said.
Invoice effort
According to Burgess, an account manager informed her in November that he had told his supervisors previously that the district clerk’s office was failing to collect certain categories of civil court fees. She said the department’s accounting system shows the district clerk mailed invoices for these fees eight times from 2001 to 2011, and not again until January, when Burgess took office. About one-third of fees owed to the district clerk remain unpaid from 2017, for example.
Starting with the most recent bills, Burgess said, her staff will work to collect fees as far back in time as possible. At a certain point, she said, labor and postage become more expensive than what the county could hope to collect.
“Right now, we’re doing pretty good with what we’re collecting, but we’re in 2018,” Burgess said. “When the payments stop coming, we won’t go any further back.”
Chris Daniel, the district clerk from 2011 until this year, said that because judges assign fees directly to parties, an additional invoice from the district clerk is unnecessary.
His office relied on the county’s third-party collection agency, the law firm of Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, to pursue unpaid fees. The county can recoup the entire fee that way, with the law firm levying a surcharge on the party that owes the fee rather than the county spending its own money on collection efforts.
“The county loses money when it tries to collect on its own after the fact,” Daniel said.
Burgess said her office will refer new unpaid fees to a collection firm after 75 days.
The new clerk also had to adjust her strategy after angering some lawyers. Her office in January mailed letters to law firms asking for updated contact information for clients so the district clerk could mail out bills. Some attorneys objected to the practice based on many of the fees being several years old. They had little interest in helping the government track down former clients.
“That may be utilizing client information in a manner that is not favorable to the client, and therefore the client would have to give express permission,” said attorney Scott Rosenberg. “What client in their right mind would say, ‘Hey, go ahead?’”
In a May 3 message to attorneys, Burgess said the district clerk’s office had abandoned that effort and would instead send invoices to law firms only for current fees.
Surprise to auditor
Michael Post, the county auditor, said he was surprised to learn last week of the uncollected $80 million. Though the auditor’s office is an independent regulator that oversees each county department, Post said no one in the district clerk’s office had mentioned the uncollected fees since he took office in 2017.
“I wouldn’t have ever dreamt this would happen,” Post said.
The auditor’s office is required by law to inspect the books of the district clerk annually, Post said; however past audits examined only whether staff deposited collected fees in the appropriate accounts. Auditors never investigated whether the district clerk collected all the fees that the county was owed.
Post, who can order additional audits at his discretion, said his office will consider investigating whether county departments that collect revenue, such as the toll road authority and tax assessorcollector, are doing so appropriately.
“I want to know, what are the eight things this department should be billing?” Post said as he scribbled a hypothetical set of numbers on his office’s whiteboard. “And then make sure that they’re billing… Then we’d have a document that we can measure against.”
‘Worth doing your job’
County Budget Officer Bill Jackson said he welcomes Burgess’ aggressive collection plan. An additional $20 million would not significantly benefit the county’s $1.6 billion general fund, however, the sum could help address needs in the criminal justice system.
“If she’s able to collect that, I would certainly suggest to Commissioners Court that some of that go right back into her operations,” he said.
Jackson said the county should regularly monitor how well departments collect revenues they are owed.
Charles Bacarisse, who served for 13 years as district clerk, a tenure that ended in 2008, described collecting fees as a source of frustration. He said each new district clerk would be wise to develop new strategies, as small unpaid sums can accumulate over time.
“It’s always worth doing your job,” Bacarisse said. “It’s never done. The challenge is to continue to innovate.… I welcome her enthusiasm for the job ahead.