Unpaid ticket late fees to be waived
Amnesty starts March 1 through April 9 covering Ferndale, Madison Heights and Hazel Park
People with unpaid and overdue traffic or parking tickets are about to catch a break.
Judges in the 43rd District Court, which covers Ferndale, Hazel Park and Madison, are declaring an amnesty on late fees for the tickets.
Ferndale 43rd District Judge Joseph Longo, chief judge of all three courts, said this is the first such amnesty the courts have allowed in about four years.
The no-late-fee period starts Monday, March 1 and continues through April 9.
“The last time we did this we had over 500 people come through the court in Ferndale and take care of their unpaid tickets,” Longo said. “That’s an outstanding number, even though there are thousands of people with unpaid tickets in our three courts.”
People recently have been calling the Ferndale court checking on what they have to do to get their tickets paid off or have suspensions removed from their driv
er’s licenses.
“Folks with a lot of unpaid tickets have a tendency to ignore them for awhile and then it starts to bother them the more time they have to think about it,” Longo said.
The recent uptick in calls to Ferndale’s court may be related to people getting tax return checks, or simply from spending more time alone and thinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
“We thought we’d give everyone a chance to save a few bucks,” Longo said.
In many cases bench warrants are issued to latepaying violators and a $100 bench warrant fee is added to a ticket.
There is also a 20-percent late fee that is attached to tickets that are left unpaid after the payment deadline.
Bench warrant and late-fee charges are being waived during the amnesty period.
Starting next Monday, people with delinquent citations will have a rare chance to get themselves in compliance without the added fees that accumulate over time.
People, however, who have had their licenses suspended by the Michigan Secretary of State will still have to pay the $45 clearance fee to the state.
“We thought if we had another amnesty program on late fees it would give people the opportunity to reduce what they owe and make it a more approachable amount” to deal with, Longo said.
The courts in return get some of the many outstanding tickets resolved and save the cost of pursuing delinquent violators.
Those who fail to pay off violations ultimately will face more rigorous efforts by the courts to collect the money owed.
For those willing to pay up, the road to redemption starts with calling the court in the city where they got the ticket between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
The amnesty includes traffic, parking and civil infraction tickets. The original fines on tickets have to be paid in full by money order or major credit card.