Going the Distance-COVID Compliance Practices

Shuttered court doesn’t close cases and new ones are coming in.  It’s difficult to keep up with it all.  Judges are back in the courtroom.  The question for compliance specialists is how to keep up with court ordered compliance while providing proper consideration for hardships endured by customers.

There are two approaches to making court work and keep payment processing running well.  Each are quite different from traditional court appearances and requires flexibility from those involved to ensure that what the judge orders and defendants agrees to are properly signed, sealed, and delivered.

Attendance is monitored by the Sheriff’s office. If the maximum seating capacity is reached participants must wait in the outside courtroom lobby.  If the maximum seating capacity for the lobby is reached the overflow of waiting attendees goes outside.

In the criminal courthouse in Seminole County, Florida sentenced customers are escorted through an exit that leads directly into customer service workstations.  These workstations are partitioned by protective glass.

Customers make arrangements for payment obligations which assess ability to pay, initial contribution, and ongoing payment plan responsibilities.

Many courts are using video meeting software to conduct virtual court.  All court participants interact through a computer screen. 

This includes the judge, attorneys, court clerks, attending personnel, and defendants.  Each must access an online link to the judge’s scheduled court event and the judge will then control the progression of cases much like court conducted in person.

The primary difference is that all exchanges are handled electronically.  This presents a challenge for compliance service.  The judge no longer can direct a defendant to go see the Clerk to make payment arrangements.  Adjustments are necessary to continue service .

There are options to connect with customers and ensure that compliance service is properly initiated and continuous.  The goal remains to satisfy the obligation with consideration towards means and opportunity to pay.

Virtual court attendance requires an email address for event noticing.  Compliance service can stay in touch with sentenced customers to make payment arrangements and provide follow-up virtual reminders.

Many Clerks offices in Florida are using online applications to create a self-service payment plan.  Users enter their case number, contact information, and payment details which is then submitted to the compliance office.  Clerk’s can then verify results and the payment process is initiated.

Once court is over the compliance office can also establish customer contact by calling all sentenced customers who have yet to set up a payment plan.  This process should take place within 30 days of a sentencing date.  The call center can provide reminders to establish service and receive phone payments to the court obligation.

The changes required to make court work and keep required distancing guidelines presents new challenges to the courts and clerks.  There are options that provide quality customer service.  This transition also presents opportunities to build virtual solutions and electronic notification systems to run your compliance office.