Debt collector fattens DuPage County's purse
More than $4.6 million has been recovered by the DuPage County circuit court clerk's office and two private debt collection agencies since a new fine recovery initiative began a year and a half ago.
Some of the fines recovered date back to court cases from the early 1980s, said Bill Maio, the office's chief compliance officer.
"And I have a guy in prison that I get a check for $1.25 each month," he said. "That just points out you can't hide from us anymore."
Since the initiative began in September 2006, nearly 20,000 of the 223,797 cases sent to the collection agencies for delinquent fine and fee recovery have been closed with payment, Maio said Tuesday at a county board finance committee meeting.
Maio said he expects to generate $20 million to $30 million during the next five years by recouping outstanding court costs and fines.
"We've been working hard and I hope we can accelerate this program over the next couple years," said Chris Kachiroubas, the county's circuit court clerk.
The debt collection agencies are contracted by the county and monitored by Kachiroubas' office, but are with a 30 percent surcharge to the debt owed, county officials said.
About 85 percent of the $4.6 million collected since the program began came from the debt collectors, Maio said.
"We send out what we call friendly reminders," Kachiroubas said. "It's money the county wouldn't have had without this program."
Beside collecting payments, the agencies have also been able to determine the cases that will never get closed. In fact, during the same period, the debt collectors determined more than 37,000 cases they received were dead ends.
Maio said those were cases where the debtor had died, was determined indigent or couldn't be located.
County board member Patrick O'Shea said he was pleased by the windfall, but because it was unexpected, the board hasn't had a chance to decide what to do with it.
"There are quite a few health and human service groups that are coming to us and asking for money," he said.