County Hires Collection Agencies to Go After Very Old Debts

It?s not often one gets to see the word ?scofflaw? trotted out these days ? and yet the Chicago Tribune totally went there, and we?re all the better for it. In a story running today, the Tribune shares that Illinois?s DuPage County state’s attorney signed contracts Wednesday with two collection agencies to extract payment from scofflaws who haven’t paid fines imposed by county courts in the last 20 years.

A scofflaw, for those who want to enrich their vocabulary, is a contemptuous law violator. And dodging debt ? in some cases, 20-year-old debt ? seems pretty apropos of the term.

For those who want to avoid the collection agencies, and to rid their names of the title of scofflaw, the county has a website where debtors can pay off their debt with a credit card. It?s estimated that scofflaws are in arrears to the county to the tune of up to $20 million in unpaid fines, court costs and fees from traffic and criminal cases.

You can read more about this story at Collection agencies hired to track down scofflaws.