This article only applies to New York clients |
Within the Court Room Program users have two options for implementing Scoff Lift Fees.
The first option is using the Scofflawed action code. When this action code is applied to a case the case will then change from Amount Due to Fees Due:
When the Scofflawed action code is applied the additional $70 per charge is then uploaded to nCourt to receive payment. This could potentially be a misinterpretation of what the defendant actually owes.
The second and preferred option is to update the Scofflawed action code to read Scofflaw. This tells the program to apply the scoff lift fee based on what is entered into the DMV Data screen.
Utility, Edit Databases, Action Status Codes.
At the top of the Edit Action/Status Codes screen select Find. Then enter in the Scofflawed action code number (usually but not always it’s 083) and select ok.
Remove the “ed” from the end of Scofflawed so it reads Scofflaw, then save and exit.
Next the scoff fee delay would need to be set. This is the time between when the scoff information is sent to DMV and when the scoff fee is applicable to the case. Utility, Edit Databases, Judges. Once on the Edit Judge Screen select the Next button at the top until an active Judge comes up.
Select the Court Numbers/Times Clerk tab towards the middle of the screen. The Scoff Fee Delay field will count the entered number of days between when the scoff information was sent from a case and when the lift fee should be applied. In this instance the scoff fee would be applied on the 38th day after the court reports the scoff information to DMV.
The court would continue reporting scoff information to DMV as they always have, nothing changes in that regard. After the 38 days have passed (in this example) the scoff fee would then be uploaded to nCourt to receive payment.
Forcing a case to nCourt:
If for some reason the scoff fee fails to upload the court can force an individual case to upload. From the defendant’s information screen, right click - this will open a menu. Once the menu is open, left click on clear nCourt invoice field, then right click again and then select send case to nCourt.
When a court expresses that there are a large number of scoff fees (or cases) not being updated at nCourt it is suggested the court does an upload once a week. Utility, nCourt Options, Send Unpaid Cases to nCourt.
This utility will match to the sentence dates entered on their cases. It’s advised to encompass a larger time frame than the default of two weeks. Discuss with the court what timeframe they believe is necessary.
If more than one Judge uses nCourt select the all Judges check box to initiate an upload for multiple Judges.
To see a report of all the uploaded cases, select the Test and Report check box. Below is an example of the report.
