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Establishes Indian River County's Collections Court for unpaid fines and costs: payment-plan placement at sentencing, the Payment Plan Agreement notice and its fee schedule ($5/month program fee, $16 missed payment, $20 writ issuance), status hearings, writs of bodily attachment with purge amounts, and post-arrest hearings.
• [A] Collections Court Program, hereinafter referred to as "Program", shall be implemented in Indian River County for the collection of fines, costs in felony, civil, misdemeanor and criminal traffic cases, costs associated with juvenile and dependency cases, costs of prosecution liens, public defender liens, court appointed liens, restitution, county ordinance infractions, municipal ordinance infractions, civil traffic infractions and parking fines all of which are hereinafter collectively referred to as "fines and costs". • I. Placement under Program: When fines and costs are imposed at sentencing or reimposed pursuant to a modification or termination of probation, the trial judge may also order any defendant who does not or cannot pay the fines and court costs in full at sentencing or at a date certain not to exceed 120 days, to comply with the terms of the Program. When sentencing defendants to probation or community service, the trial judge may order the defendants to comply with the payment of fines and costs as a condition of probation instead of the Program. In cases in which defendants are sentenced and incarcerated to the County Jail or to the Florida Department of Corrections, the judge may reduce all fines and costs to a final judgment and these defendants may be included in the Program once they are released from custody. • II. Notice Form: At sentencing the trial clerk shall prepare and furnish each defendant who is ordered to comply with the Program a form entitled "Payment Plan Agreement" (hereinafter referred to as "Notice"). The Original Notice shall be signed by the defendant, the clerk or clerk's agent at the direction of the trial judge, and then placed in the court file. A copy of the Notice shall be furnished to the defendant. The Notice shall advise the defendant of the following: 1) The date, time and location of Collections Court. 2) The total amount due. 3) That the defendant may elect to make equal monthly payments if unable to pay the total amount due. 4) Where payments are to be made. 5) The date payment is to be made each month until paid in full. 6) That the defendant is not required to appear for Collections Court if he/she has paid the full amount or executed a payment plan option agreement. 7) That the defendant shall be assessed an administrative fee payable to the Clerk of the Court in the amount of $5.00 per month for inclusion in the Program. 8) That each time the defendant fails to make a scheduled payment on the date specified, an additional administrative fee of $16.00 payable to the Clerk of Court shall be assessed against the defendant for the costs incurred under the Program. 9) That each time a defendant fails to appear for a required Collection Court status hearing and a Writ of Bodily Attachment is issued, an additional administrative fee of $20.00 shall be assessed against the defendant for the costs incurred under the Program. This administrative fee, when collected, shall be disbursed by the Clerk of Court as follows: $10.00 to the Clerk of Court; $10.00 to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. • III. Clerk of Court's Revenue Collection Office: The Clerk of Court shall monitor the defendant's compliance with the ordered payment schedule. The Clerk of Court staff shall have the authority to modify the payment schedule, but shall not have the authority to relieve the defendant of the responsibility to pay the full amount of fines and costs. If a defendant makes the monthly payments as required under the Program, the defendant will not be required to appear at a Collections Court hearing. • IV. Collections Court Status Hearings: If a defendant fails to timely make a monthly payment and does not comply with the Court's and Clerk's collection efforts, the defendant may be required to appear at the next scheduled Collections Court status hearing to show legal cause for failure to comply with the payment order. Judges or Hearing Officers shall preside over the Collections Court status hearings. If a Hearing Officer presides, a Judge's signature must also be obtained on any judgments or orders recommended by the Hearing Officer. • V. Writs of Bodily Attachment: If a defendant is not current with the required payments and does not appear at the scheduled Collections Court status hearing, the Judge shall order a Writ of Bodily Attachment for the defendant's arrest and delivery to the Indian River County Jail. The Clerk shall prepare and issue a Writ of Bodily Attachment, which shall contain a purge amount, not to exceed $250.00 or the total balance owed, whichever is less, and shall forward it to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. The Clerk shall send the defendant a postcard or letter stating that a Writ has been issued for the defendant's arrest, and that in order to avoid arrest the defendant must appear at the Clerk's Office and pay the stated purge amount. Prior to the Execution of the Writ, the Clerk of Court shall have the authority through the Collections Court Program to recall the Writ. Defendants who pay the purge amount on the Writ of Bodily Attachment, but who have a remaining balance of fines and court costs must continue to comply with the Program. • In addition to the remaining fines and court costs owed and any fees imposed pursuant to this Order, an administrative fee of $70.00 shall be assessed upon execution of a Writ of Bodily Attachment for the costs incurred by the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. This administrative fee shall be assessed if the defendant is physically arrested pursuant to the Writ of Bodily Attachment. An additional administrative fee of $60.00 shall be assessed for the costs incurred by the Indian River County Sheriff's Office when the defendant is booked and held in the Indian River County Jail. • Defendants held in custody who are unable or unwilling to pay the purge amount required by the Writ of Bodily Attachment shall be brought before a Judge on the first business day following arrest to address their non-compliance with the Program. At these hearings, the Judge may reduce the fines and court costs owed to judgment and the Judge may determine whether the defendant must continue to comply with the Program. • VI. Other Legal Remedies for Collection: This Administrative Order shall not bar the Clerk of Court from taking other legal action in any case to collect fines and costs including suspension of the defendant's driver's license in appropriate cases; pursuing a civil action where legal and appropriate; and pursuing other actions that may be or become legal due to statutory changes. VII. Effective Date: This Administrative Order shall become effective immediately.
Reviewer note: Document sha256: cdd0b4229009-prefixed (see source_documents custody row; 264,745 bytes; 7 pages — operative order pp.2-6 read in full; hearing-schedule names (Judges Morgan/Wild) are as printed in the 2014 order and reflect 2014 assignments). Born-scanned order from the 19th's named 14-scan OCR backlog (P1 task 47f5ab4e). Transcription method: page images read at 170 dpi with each quoted provision verified against the image; no raw machine OCR was published. Transcribed verbatim from the court's born-scanned order (no text layer has ever existed publicly; the register PDF was live-fetched 2026-08-19, sha256-matched to the 2026-07 custody row, rasterized at 170 dpi, and each quoted provision was read and verified against the page image at transcription time); whitespace normalised only. The full scanned document remains in custody and is the controlling text. [moved from the text 2026-09-17]
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.