April 29, 2019 Washington State Office of the Attorney General
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Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that, as a result of his lawsuit, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and seven other CHI Franciscan hospitals will forgive as much as $20 million in debt, pay $2.22 million in refunds, pay the Attorney General’s Office $2.46 million, and rehabilitate the credit of thousands of patients who qualified for charity care between 2012 and 2017 but did not receive it.
Hundreds lined up at the Kitsap County Courthouse for “LFO Reconsideration Day” to meet with an attorney and make their case to a judge why their debt should be forgiven.
Washington state has among the most punishing laws in the country for people in debt, allowing collection companies to take advantage of high interest rates and of courts that have made it easy to sue and garnish wages.
Debt collection efforts around the United States rely heavily on litigation to collect past due debt. The ease of obtaining default judgments and garnishment orders has led debt buyers to use the courts as a critical tool for extracting payments from consumers, despite the lack of documentation showing that the consumer actually owes the amount claimed.
Debt collection efforts around the United States rely heavily on litigation to collect past due debt. The ease of obtaining default judgments and garnishment orders has led debt buyers to use the courts as a critical tool for extracting payments from consumers, despite the lack of documentation showing that the consumer actually owes the amount claimed.
One in three adults in this country has a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. Thousands of debtors are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money.
Many people with medical debt may qualify for a program called Charity Care that provides assistance to those who cannot afford to pay their medical bills. An NJP attorney talks with KIRO’s Jesse Jones about the program.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson notified the Washington Legislature his office is requesting legislation to establish a program to address traffic-based financial obligations that does not penalize people for their poverty. In a December 1, 2017 Report, required by law, the AG’s Office proposes a system to consolidate traffic debt, owed courts in multiple jurisdictions, into one payment plan making it easier for individuals to pay their traffic debts and reinstate their driver’s licenses.
February 25, 2017 by Gene Johnson, Columbia Basin Herald
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The most commonly charged crime in Washington shouldn't be a crime at all, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union argues in a new report. Taxpayers spend more than $40 million a year to prosecute cases of third-degree driving with a suspended license, the organization found.
In a victory for indigent disabled people throughout the state, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that federal law prohibits courts from ordering defendants to pay court imposed Legal Financial Obligations if the person’s only source of income is social security disability benefits. The court added: “…A person's present inability to meet their own basic needs is not only relevant, but crucial to determining whether paying LFOs would create a manifest hardship.” City of Richland v. Wakefield.
NJP CLEAR and King County Debt Clinic advocates contacted the WA Attorney General’s Office Wing Luke Civil Rights Unit after seeing a pattern of egregious abuse in used car sales involving primarily Spanish speaking clients statewide. Abuse of low-income individuals in used car sales is widespread and has serious consequences for the car buyer seeking affordable and reliable transportation for work, and also creates dangerous situations for the clients, their families, and the driving public when cars malfunction on the road.
November 18, 2015 by Jordan Schrader, The Olympian
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Attorney Leslie Owen greeted her client with good news last week: A fine for driving with a suspended license had been dropped in Grant County, wiping out $1,500 of what Teresa Nisbet owed. The two celebrated the latest step out of a hole Nisbet had dug with credit cards, payday loans, drug use and bad luck. Nisbet recalls how she felt at the bottom of that hole: “I can’t see the light. I have no hope.”
April 14, 2015 by Shaila Dewan, The New York Times
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LEBANON, Tenn. — The last time Kenneth Seay lost his job, at an industrial bakery that offered health insurance and Christmas bonuses, it was because he had been thrown in jail for legal issues stemming from a revoked driver’s license. Same with the three jobs before that.
Drive drunk, drive recklessly, and the state can suspend your driver's license. But many police and motor vehicle administrators worry about a recent trend: A large number of suspensions are for reasons that have nothing to do with unsafe driving.
These reasons include unpaid traffic tickets, falling behind on child support, getting caught with drugs, bouncing checks; or minor juvenile offenses like missing school, using false identification to buy alcohol, or shoplifting.
