Sending the Right Compliance Message

It begins from the bench!

It’s important to get payment compliance off to the right start. It begins from the courtroom at the time of sentencing. The judge controls the initial message about how much the fine is and when it gets repaid. Who do you think your customer is going to pay the most attention to while in the courtroom?

 The message from the bench can either help or hinder compliance. When the judge orders a payment schedule that determines how any payment plan will progress. Extended time without factoring in ability to pay and customer circumstances hinders chances for successful completion. It is important that customers listen to judicial instructions. But how can you help that message become one that encourages compliance and continuous customer participation with your office?

 Consider that the defendant, who soon will become your compliance customer, is listening to all other requirements in their sentence. They may not be focusing on paying a fine as much as serving potential jail or probation time.

 This is where compliance clerks can assist judges and customers before court starts. The judge, in most cases, wants to provide ample time for a customer to comply. The tendency is to provide a predetermined future schedule that can be extensive. Automatically setting ninety days or even later for a customer to report on fine compliance prevents an opportunity to set up a good compliance relationship with a payment plan that meets your customers ability to pay and circumstances. This requires a conversation with your customer by your compliance team. The best way for that to happen is for the judge to hold back on committing to a due date and directing your customer to the compliance office where you can assess circumstances and set up a payment plan.

 Encouraging consistent payment instructions from the Judge to see the Clerk can be tricky. The judge may want to control payment compliance dates. But the benefits of getting immediate clerk assistance in creating payment plans can provide better outcomes for customers attempting to pay.

 At sentencing, the fine review is more consistent without varying due dates. The Clerk’s office assesses a customer’s ability to pay, considers additional cases that may be involved, and updates contact information which creates a clearly understood payment plan.

 If your customer understands their expectations for repayment and the plan carefully reviews ability to pay, then regular payment progress is more likely. This also reduces payment default with the potential for adding a failure to pay driver’s license suspension and additional collection agency fees on top of the fine.

 Start your compliance communication project with one judge at a time and make sure to keep up with your messaging project. Go to the courtroom and listen for consistency in the judge’s instruction. Keep track of how well customers are reporting to your office. Acknowledge how this is helping compliance and make sure that everyone understands, how this is helping improve compliance, by providing benefits to the customer and efficiencies for the judge.

Compliance Improvement Services (CIS) provides consulting and training from experienced professionals for courts and local government to help them achieve better compliance in the payment of fines and costs.  Our emphasis is on helping our customers help citizens.  When you begin building your communication plan on compliance consider contacting CIS.