A debt collector and the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts have had a lawsuit against them dismissed that challenged the 40% collection fee that an individual was charged.
In this case, the plaintiff, Natasha Guerra, received a $392 traffic ticket for speeding. A $16 late fee was applied when the ticket wasn’t paid within 30 days, and then an additional $163.20 was added to the balance four months later when the account was placed with Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP.
The same day the account was placed with Linebarger, Guerra paid the total balance in full at the county clerk’s office.
The 40% fee was set in the contract between the county and the law firm. A copy of the dismissal can be accessed here.
Guerra filed a class-action lawsuit, claiming that Linebarger did not perform any actual services in order to be paid its fee. The plaintiff also argued that the 40% fee was excessive and violated due process and the constitutions of Florida and the United States.
Judge Kevin Michael Moore of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims in granting the dismissal.
“Finally, even construing the plain language of the statute in Plaintiff’s favor, the statute does not speak about the timing of the imposition of the collection fee. Rather it vests the clerk of court with discretion to assess a collection fee of up to 40% of the amount otherwise owed per each unpaid fine. That is precisely what the Clerk did in this instance.”
