If you have received a letter from a collection agency about your court debt, or been told by a court clerk that you are in collections, please contact the collection agency directly. Court debt is assigned out to collections if the court has ordered you to pay fees/fines and you have not either paid the debt in full within 30 days, or you have not been set up on a payment plan. Case balance debt can be considered delinquent 30 days after the date of the court order.
Oregon law (ORS 1.202) requires the court to add a fee to any judgment that includes money owed to the court; Examples: filing fees on a civil or family law case, traffic fines, parking fines, criminal fines. The fee is subject to be added when the court establishes a payment plan that lasts longer than 1 year to pay the total balance in full. A fee will also be added to any case balance that gets referred out for collections
You should have received a
letter from the debt collector letting you know your court debt is assigned to
them. If you do not have that information, contact the
court.
If your account becomes delinquent, it will be
referred to a collection agency. The collection agency will notify you of the
assignment of your account. For additional information, contact the appropriate
collection agency:
If you were notified by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that your license was suspended due to unpaid citation(s)(suspension requested before October 1, 2020), or due to failing to appear you will you will either need to pay in full, or set up a payment plan on those citation(s), in order to reinstate your license. You will need to obtain a “clearance" from the court. Please contact the Customer Service Department for more information, and we ask that you please have your case/citation number to better assist you.
If you received a letter stating your tax refund was intercepted you can either follow the instructions in the letter or, contact the Oregon Judicial Department Refund Offset Program directly via email at OJD.TaxOffset@ojd.state.or.us., or, by calling 1.888.564.2828, option #3. Provide as much detail as possible, most of which is provided in the letter you received. The Refund Offset Program will respond to your email or message within 48 hours. Please wait to hear from them before contacting the court.
If you have received a letter from a collection agency or have been advised by court staff that you have debt assigned out for collections, contact the collection agency directly to resolve the debt.