…thanks to a sweeping reform bill (HB 244) signed on Monday, Delaware has become a national leader in ending abusive fines and fees. The Campaign to End Debtor’s Prisons led a bipartisan coalition, including the Institute for Justice and the state chapters of the ACLU, and NAACP, to support the bill.
Sponsored by Rep. Sean Lynn, HB 244 bans courts from charging interest or imposing fees for late payments, failing to pay, or paying in installments. The new law further repeals two particularly absurd fees that have netted the state a steady stream of revenue—over $1.1 million each year. First, it eliminates a fee that forces people on probation to pay for their own supervision. The reform also repeals the state’s fee for using a public defender, even though public defenders famously do not charge clients for their services; over 40 states charge a similarly oxymoronic fee.
