Remitting Costs and Fines

A judge may remit unpaid fines and costs at any time. In certain circumstances. I’ve written a few posts about waiving court costs. This post covered the basics, outlining the recent legislative history that expanded costs into the realm of active-punishment cases and limited a trial judge’s authority to waive them. This one discussed the changes to the way cost waivers are tracked. It also included a chart of the various statutory waiver provisions applicable to each type of cost. It occurs to me, though, that I have never written much about the other process through which a monetary obligation may be excused: remission. Under G.S. 15A-1363, a defendant or prosecutor “may at any time petition the sentencing court for a remission or revocation of the fine or costs or any unpaid portion of it.” The statute permits the court to remit the fine or costs “in whole or in part” or to modify the method of payment, but only in three circumstances. Those are: That the circumstances which warranted the imposition of the fine or costs no longer exist; That it would otherwise be unjust to require payment; or That the proper administration of justice requires resolution of the case.   Is remission really just a waiver by another name? I don’t think so. The authority to remit is spelled out in its own statute, separate from the cost-waiver provisions in G.S. 7A-304. More generally, I view a waiver as a front-end decision to excuse a monetary obligation that would [...]