Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Fines are a form of criminal punishment, just the same as imprisonment. Sometimes fines are the only form of punishment levied against a criminal defendant; other times fines are assessed to accompany a term of incarceration. That being the case, the payment of court-ordered fines is essential to clearing one’s record and avoiding further punishment. The traditional fines that most people are aware of are those for Tennessee traffic violations; however, fines can be assessed for almost any crime, both misdemeanors and felonies.

So what happens if you fail to pay your fines? The answer is found in TCA § 40-24-104.

If you fail to pay your fines, the court has several options at its disposal for you to review with your criminal defense attorney. First, if the failure to pay the fine was caused by an inability to pay, the court may, in its discretion, reduce the amount of the fine to a level that you are able to pay. Second, the court may also require that you be imprisoned until all or a designated portion of the fine is paid. This period of time is generally limited to the specified limits of imprisonment for a Class C misdemeanor, meaning that incarceration will be limited to 30 days.

Sometimes courts will permit an individual to make installment payments on their fines in order to ease the burden that a lump sum payment would impose. Default on these payments is generally treated the same as failing to pay the entire amount, and will be punished within the guidelines set forth above. There is one exception to this, however. When the installment plan is established to aid a defendant in the payment of fine for a traffic violation in Knoxville, default on the payments will result in the court revoking the defendant’s drivers license until the entire amount due is paid in full.