Broadening the Lens of Procedural Justice Beyond the Courtroom: A Case Study of Legal Financial Obligations in the Juvenile Court

Abstract

Procedural justice research has shown how people’s experiences with courtroom actors, such as judges, defense attorneys, and prosecutors, shape their views of the justice system and its legitimacy. However, less is known about how people’s experiences outside the courtroom that relate to their cases shape their views of this system. Based on forty-one interviews with twenty-one youths and twenty parents in Dane County, Wisconsin about their legal financial obligations (also known as monetary sanctions), this study broadens the focus of procedural justice to include another key aspect to people’s experiences with the law beyond the courtroom: their experiences navigating bureaucratic aspects to their youths’ cases and their interactions with non-court staff (e.g., clerks, Human Services, and community agencies), otherwise known as “auxiliary personnel” (Feeley 1979) or “street-level bureaucrats” (Lipsky 2010/1980). We focus on legal financial obligations as a case study to show this multi-agency view of procedural justice as it reveals the families’ often disjointed experiences with justice staff both inside and outside of the courtroom.

The Impact of Legal-Financial Obligations on Relationships With Family, Friends, and Acquaintances: A Qualitative Study of Community Supervised Men With Sexual and Nonsexual Offense Convictions

“…Limited evidence suggests that monetary sanctions can also engender stress and conflict within families. Parents of children with LFOs experience anxiety, anger, frustration, and resentment, weakening relationships with their children (Campos-Bui et al, 2017; Paik & Packard, 2019) and children report worry, stress, and arguments with parents (Campos-Bui et al, 2017). Adults with LFOs discuss feeling guilty about relying on family to pay and relay limited ability to address their debt on their own (Boches et al, 2022; Pleggenkuhle, 2018).…”

Legal financial obligations in the United States: A review of recent research

“…Given the fractured character of the systems that administer LFOs, it is not surprising to find high levels of confusion among the people with legal debt, their families, and victims. Regarding the juvenile legal system, Paik and Packard (2019) note that in one jurisdiction of Dane County, four agencies are involved in administering seven different LFOs related to a youth's delinquency case, leading to the family's uncertainty about where to pay which fine. Shannon et al.…”

“…Additionally, an important feature of LFOs is that sanctions can be paid by someone other than the person who received the LFO. This makes it difficult to understand the scope of LFO consequences on people and their social networks (Boches et al., 2022; Paik and Packard, 2019). New research has begun to take on these data and analytic challenges to explore the broad consequences of LFOs on people.…”

“…For example, parents' drivers' licenses could get suspended for nonpayment, affecting their ability to get to and from work; families also reported having to decide between paying for the person's legal debt versus providing for their other members' basic needs including housing, medication, school expenses, among others. That adds more tension on family relationships (Paik & Packard, 2019) and leads to heightened emotional stress among the members expected to pay.…”

Police Killings and Municipal Reliance on Fine-and-Fee Revenue

“…One Washington state resident owed $72,000 in legal debt thirteen years after her assault conviction, struggling to make the minimum payments with her construction apprentice salary (Harris 2016, 55). Legal debts put the already poor under financial strain, threatening their jobs, housing, health, education, and family bonds (Paik and Packard 2019;Salas and Ciolfi 2017;Pattillo et al 2022;Harris and Smith 2022). Some states revoke driver's licenses or reincarcerate people who fail to pay their fines and fees (Evans 2014;Bannon, Nagrecha, and Diller 2010).…”