Title
Report to the Legislature | Online Infraction Adjudication and Ability-to-Pay Determinations
body
Summary
The Online Infraction Adjudication and Ability-to-Pay Determinations report to the Legislature describes actions taken to expand online ability-to-pay determination requests for infraction violations statewide as authorized by Assembly Bill 143 (Stats. 2021, ch. 79). As of June 26, 2024, all of California’s 58 superior courts have made online ability-to-pay determination requests available through the MyCitations tool, California’s online system to allow individuals with eligible infraction violations to request reductions in their court-ordered debt if they do not have the ability to pay it. Between the program’s launch in April 2019 through December 2024, approximately 264,000 ability-to-pay requests were submitted through the MyCitations tool by over 194,000 defendants. These cases accounted for over $136 million in outstanding fines and fees that, after judicial review, were reduced by more than $68 million. Consistent with research presented in previous reports, case-level analyses collected from requests made through MyCitations demonstrate that defendants are more likely to pay when offered a reduced amount.