Civil Judgments for Criminal Monetary Obligations

When can money owed as the result of criminal case be docketed as a civil judgment? You’ve probably seen the recent report from the Administrative Office of the Courts on criminal cost waivers. That report, required annually under G.S. 7A-350, aggregates court cost waivers “by the district in which the waiver or waivers were granted and by the name of each judge granting a waiver or waivers.” I wrote about tracking court cost waivers here. The report is interesting. It sorts judicial officials’ decisions on monetary obligations into several different “money statuses.” The status of primary interest—or at least the one statutorily required to be tracked—is costs that are “Waived/Remitted.” But other statuses are also included. For example, there is a column showing the total number of costs “Ordered,” to “provide a sense of the volume of the dispositions in each county . . . or by each judge.” Report at 2. One of the statuses is “Civil Judgment.” The report defines that status as the one to be used “when the judge orders the monetary obligations due through civil rather than criminal enforcement.” Id. at 3. The general concept of treating certain criminal monetary obligations as civil exists in our statutes. I know of three such authorizations. Costs and fines. Under G.S. 15A-1365, “[w]hen a defendant has defaulted in payment of a fine or costs, the judge may order that the judgment be docketed. Upon being docketed, the judgment becomes a lien on the real estate the defendant in the [...]