San Francisco Erases Millions in Traffic Citation Late Fees

(Sora Shimazaki/Pexels)

A court in San Francisco announced that it has erased $50 million in traffic violation late fees, known as civil assessments, that were issued in the city.

The city treasurer’s office announced the move in a statement on Sept. 14. According to the statement, the action is part of a statewide reform effort to “lower unfair and unnecessary fines and fees.”

California is known for having some of the steepest traffic fines and fees in the country.

A civil assessment is a $300 fee issued when a person doesn’t pay a traffic court fine on time or fails to appear in court. San Francisco eliminated 180,000 of these fees.

The action was enacted by Assembly Bill 199, which also changes the civil assessment from $300 to being capped at $100. Revenue from these fees will now be collected into California’s general fund instead of into local courts.

This change aims to shift any incentive courts might have to issue more fines or fees.

“California should not fund our local courts by asking the courts to impose fees that they benefit from. Courts should be funded separate and apart from these fees,” said Anne Stuhldreher, director of the Financial Justice Project in the Office of San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros. “Eliminating the debt from this unfair and unnecessary fee and lowering it is a commonsense reform and an important step forward. It will bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Californians.”

“Elimination of this debt provides critical relief to tens of thousands of San Franciscans and is a significant step in the right direction,” said Zal Shroff, Senior Staff Attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

All civil assessments issued before July 1, 2022 are now erased. Fees that were issued after that have been capped at $100.

About one third of traffic fines in the city were not paid on time and were issued the fee, according to the San Francisco Treasurer’s Office.