Seattle gives old tickets new bite

By Doug Merlino
Seattle Times staff reporter

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That's the message thousands of people have gotten in the mail recently courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Court's new collection agency, which has begun to collect on more than 600,000 overdue parking and traffic tickets up to a decade old.

The outstanding tickets are worth around $64 million.

"Hundreds of thousands of notices have been sent," said Renee Linnabary, a vice president at the Alliance One collection agency.

The effort has bolstered the court's coffers but has delivered an unwelcome surprise to some people.

First Hill resident Gigi Iob received notices for three overdue tickets in June, putting the bite on her for $409.

"It was completely out of the blue," Iob said. "I haven't owned a car in 10 years. I have no recollection of having gotten the tickets."

Linnabary said more than a third of the tickets now in collection are more than 5 years old.

State law allows collection on judgments up to 10 years old. That period can be extended for 10 years, by application.

Seattle Municipal Court Administrator Yolande Williams, however, said the court's policy is to stop collecting on tickets more than 10 years old.

Either way, Iob said she had had no memory of getting her tickets. The letters she received didn't offer many clues: They show no date or indication of what the tickets were for, only sums showing a court fine, court costs and collection fees.
 
When it's all added up, one $35 ticket became a $110 blow to Iob's pocketbook.

Iob said the collection agency told her the fines were from citations written in the early 1990s.

"Who keeps records going back that long?" Iob asked. "If you have paid, there's no way to prove it."

Court administrator Williams pointed out that people had a chance to pay off old fines without penalty during a court amnesty program from January to the end of March. After that, Alliance One began work, and the company took over the backlogs of both the city court and its former collection agency, which had held the contract for 13 years.

The city did not notify individuals with unpaid tickets but announced the amnesty program through the news media, along with a phone number people could call to check whether they had outstanding fines.

Williams said a lot of people have expressed displeasure.

"We've had a higher than normal amount of complaints," she said, adding that such calls to the court have risen about 50 percent to between 200 and 300 a week. The most common protests are that people "didn't know they had an obligation, never received notification, or didn't own a car," Williams said.

She said a system has been set up at the court to deal with complaints.

Linnabary noted that an increase in calls and complaints was to be expected at the start of the collection process.

"With this many accounts, and this many aged accounts, you're going to get some people coming out of the woodwork," she said.

People who receive the notices have 30 days to contact the collection agency in writing to get copies of judgments or verification of the debt.

The push to collect on the tickets has brought the court an infusion of cash. According to Linnabary, more than 11,500 overdue tickets have been paid in full since April for a total of about $1.1 million, of which about $900,000 has been sent back to the court. Many have agreed to payment plans, as well.

Alliance One has offices nationwide. In Washington state, the company has contracts with more than 80 courts, including those of King and Kitsap counties, as well as Everett and Lynnwood.

According to Linnabary, the court's contract with Alliance One sets the collection agency's administrative fee at between 19 percent and 29 percent of the value of a ticket, based on a sliding scale that varies with the age of the fine. That compares with a maximum of 34 percent with the court's former collection agency, Williams said, making the new contract a better deal for those who have to pay the fines.

For Iob, who's disputing the claims, that's little consolation..

"People freak out when they see a letter from the Municipal Court. No one wants to have that on their record," she said. "I'm sure a lot of people just go ahead and write a check."

Doug Merlino: 206-464-2243 or dmerlino@seattletimes.com