2024 Senate Bill 815

AI Analysis – Experimental

Delineates the financial obligations a defendant may face upon a guilty plea or conviction, including minimum state costs, authorized fines, trial court expenses, legal assistance expenses, and any law-authorized assessments. It permits the collection of these amounts at any time, allows for wage assignment for payment, and enables the application of excess payments to other fines or costs owed by the defendant in different cases. The bill mandates that courts provide defendants with information about their financial obligations, excluding the specific calculation of costs, and requires courts to annually report costs related to trial court expenses to the state court administrative office for compilation and submission in a report to the governor, the secretary of the senate, and the clerk of the house of representatives, which will also be made available to the public. Additionally, it specifies that a defendant cannot be imprisoned for nonpayment of these costs unless it is determined they have the means to pay and have not made a good-faith effort to do so.