Municipal Contradictions: How To Provide An Equitable Municipal Court Experience
Farah Rahaman
May 2015
Municipal court cases account for the bulk of all legal filings and are often the only interaction that many people have with the judicial system, yet there is a significant lack of research on the impact of municipal courts on our daily lives. Scholarly discourse on the provision of municipal services tends to focus on municipal services which play a key role in our day to day lives such as education, waste management, or park maintenance. While the role of municipal courts in our daily lives may not be as visible as other municipal services, they serve a key judicial and municipal function. Municipal courts are the ambassadors of the judicial system and are often the only interaction that many people have with the judicial system. The municipal court experience is often the formative factor in developing an individual’s perception of the judicial system.
Approximately seven million cases are filed each year in New Jersey; six million of these cases are filed in municipal court while one million are filed in superior court. In 2014, municipal court filings accounted for 86% of all court filings throughout each of New Jersey’s judicial systems. On average, $500 million dollars annually pass through the municipal court system. Undoubtedly, municipal courts play an essential and often overlooked role in society. This paper seeks to change the discourse around municipal courts as well as address the unsound and contradictory nature in which municipal courts are funded in New Jersey.
The unrest in Ferguson over the past year illustrates the debilitating impact a municipal court can have on an entire community. The Ferguson Municipal Court’s use of harsh municipal ordinances and arbitrary sentencing practices resulted in a form of judicial social control. The abusive revenue driven municipal court practices preyed on Ferguson’s predominately low-income minority residents to offset the costs of a depreciating tax base. The actions of the Ferguson municipal court delegitimized the authority of the court and law enforcement officials and were the catalyst lead to the civil unrest that arose after Michael Brown’s death. The residents of Ferguson were forced to deal with an oppressive municipal court simply by virtue of where they lived.
While there is no New Jersey municipality that relies as heavily on municipal court fines to augment their municipal revenue as much as Ferguson does, failure to pay a municipal fine has drastic impact on the lives of indigent defendants. Failure to pay a municipal court fine can result in incarceration. Outstanding warrants places a pause button on the lives of those who are unable to pay their court fines and can result in suspended licenses, an inability to qualify for certain jobs, and can prevent people from obtaining guardianship of their grandchildren who are in the custody of the Division of Child Protective Services. An unpaid municipal court fine can have a devastating impact on the life of an individual; this is why it is so important that all New Jersey residents have access to a municipal court which is responsive to their needs. Quite often, our poorest residents have to shoulder the burden of frequenting the most ineffective and busiest municipal courts in the state.
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Municipal Contradictions: How To Provide An Equitable Municipal Court Experience