Court officials soon will have a new option in collecting long overdue court fines and fees.

The North Dakota Supreme Court approved on Thursday an administrative rule that will allow the state court administrator to collect past-due court fees and fines through tax intercept beginning on Sept. 1.

Fines, fees and restitution costs can be assessed to people who are found guilty or plead guilty to crimes. Mandatory minimum court fees, which vary in amount by classes of offenses, are assessed in most cases. However, judges can find a person indigent and waive fines and fees if they believe the person is unable to pay.

State Court Administrator Sally Holewa said court officials have been trying for several years to improve the collection of fines, fees and costs imposed for criminal convictions. During the 2005 legislative session, a law was passed to allow the state court administrator to collect such money by taking it out of a person's state income tax refund, but no process was in place in the court system to do that, Holewa said.

The new rule will allow the state court administrator to give information to the tax commissioner about people who are 90 days or more past the payment due date for court fines and fees. After getting confirmation from the tax commissioner that the funds can be taken out of a tax refund, the court administrator must send a written notice to the person.

If the person files taxes jointly with a spouse, the spouse can ask for a hearing before the state court administrator to establish whether the spouse should get his or her portion of the refund. The court administrator's decision can then be appealed to a three-person panel set up by the state Supreme Court chief justice.

The state court administrator's office plans to contract with the McHenry County clerk of courts to begin looking through old cases with past-due fines and fees to determine which ones should be pursued.

McHenry County Clerk of Courts Lorraine Myers said her first job will be to determine which people can be located.

"Some of them may be deceased," she said.

Others may have moved out of state, or have multiple convictions in multiple counties. "Sometimes, it's hard to track them," Myers said.

Holewa said court officials will begin sending out letters in November to people whose fines and fees are overdue.

Court officials have other strategies for collecting fines, fees and restitution, too, she said. The first step is to collect as much money toward the balance as possible on the day the person is sentenced. If the entire balance cannot be paid, the next step is to set up accounts and send monthly notices, just like any other bills.

"It's the one process that works the best," Holewa said about monthly billing.

When the bills go unpaid despite the monthly notices, courts can summons people to appear in court, issue warrants for their arrest, suspend their licenses or try for civil judgments, Holewa said. Now, tax intercept will be one more tool in collecting the long overdue bills.

Holewa said any of the methods can be used to try to get people's payments.

"It's a matter of actually gathering the tools available, and deciding when and how we want to use them," she said.

The new system isn't imposing additional punishment on people, it's just trying to get what is rightfully owed to the state, she said.

"If it's imposed as a punishment and it's never paid, then it's not truly a punishment," she said. "This should not be considered a witch hunt. This is money that is legitimately owed."

Jill Weigel, individual income tax supervisor for the state tax commissioner's office, said taking unpaid bills out of income tax refunds is nothing new - it's just new to the North Dakota court system. For the tax department, taking out court fines and fees will be similar to taking child support payments out of income tax refunds, she said.

"This is very similar to what we do for other agencies," she said.

Other state agencies and departments authorized to claim money from a person's income tax refund include the Department of Human Services, Job Service North Dakota, Workforce Safety and Insurance, the North Dakota guaranteed student loan program, and the state housing finance agency.

Weigel said the tax commissioner's office checks a person's name and Social Security number against any bills of at least $25 unpaid to the state agencies.

"Then, the refund is taken and the taxpayer is notified by letter who has taken it," she said.

If a person has a $500 refund and a $200 fine to pay, the person would get a $300 refund and a letter telling them who has the rest of the refund. Any dispute over the money taken from a refund is between the person and the agency or department that has taken it, Weigel said.

"Taxpayers don't like that sometimes, but that's the way it works," she said about the intercept process.

Holewa said the court fees and fines owed by most people are less than $300, and they usually have one year to make the payments.

"Most people don't have big fines, and they don't have big restitutions," she said.

The court officials will work with people who are making efforts to make their payments and keep in touch with the courts.

"We aren't looking at people who are regularly paying fines, even if they are a little behind," Holewa said. "We're looking at the people who have walked out the door and thumbed their noses at us."

Burleigh County Clerk of Courts Deb Simenson said she doesn't have any estimates on how many people involved in Burleigh County cases have unpaid fines and fees.

"We do collect a lot, but there is a lot uncollected," she said.

"Every county has cases that kind of hang out there," Myers said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)