Lawsuit targets court costs, fees

Gus Philpott, The Woodstock Advocate
13 February 2016 (6:49 AM)

A lawsuit refiled in McHenry County by local attorneys Ray Flavin, Matt Haiduk and James Kelly targets exorbitant court costs and fees that are tacked onto a judge's decision for a fine.

Read about it here, in the Northwest Herald article by reporter Katie Dahlstrom. She must have published that in honor of my birthday. Thanks, Katie. (But then she might not have known that those costs and fees have been the subject of rants on The Woodstock Advocate for years.

This should quickly become a class-action lawsuit.

You may have been lucky enough to avoid McHenry County Courts. But they are full every day with people who, upon hearing their name, line up, face the judge for 30 seconds, hear $50 Fine, and then learn at the Payment Window that the $50 Fine is really going to cost then $250-300.

A new procedure in the courtroom now is to print out the bill and present it to the traffic violator after the judge (or his clerk) scrawls a signature on it (or maybe uses a rubber stamp?), so the person can have the heart attack in the courtroom, rather than at the Payment Window.

If you think Katie should publish the Transaction for some poor guy (or gal) whose Fine was $25-50, but was forced to pay $250-300, send Katie an email at kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com

Click on the link in Katie's story to a second story by Chelsea McDougall on June 18, 2015. On Page 3 of that earlier online story is a summary, by county, of the "take" on top of the Fine. But that's only a summary, not a breakdown. See the breakdown for McHenry County; that's what will outrage you.