Criminal Fines and Fees in North Carolina

Presented by the North Carolina Coalition for Responsible Lending with Forward Justice and National Consumer Law Center

Thursday, January 26th, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm ET

Join the NC Coalition for a webinar about criminal justice debt and its impact on North Carolinians. The webinar will cover North Carolina’s assessment, collection, and waiver of criminal-legal fines and fees.

If you are a credit counselor, judge, court clerk, criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, bankruptcy attorney, or otherwise work with people who have criminal-legal debt, please join us for this important discussion. 

Whitley Carpenter will explain how North Carolina law allows for the waiver of some fines and fees, why the NC Fines and Fees Coalition felt a form was needed, and how the form can reduce criminal justice debt for low-income people.

Ariel Nelson and Abby Shafroth will discuss their recent publication, Collecting Criminal Justice Debt Through the State Civil Justice System. The report considers the harm to justice-involved individuals for unpaid criminal debt, and whether converting that debt to a civil judgment, something that North Carolina courts increasingly order, offers a viable alternative.