eService Center - Administrative Office of the Courts

In JIS, how do you assign a Vehicle Related Violation amount to a Defendant or Responsible Party instead of the vehicle's owner?

In the JIS Parking Sub-system, an unpaid vehicle related violation defaults to the vehicle owner as the party who receives a delinquent notice and is subsequently sent to collections.  TheJIS Parking Sub-system cannot send accounting notices to a non-owner record or to send a non-owner to collections via the Collections Reports.

RCW 46.12.655 provides definition of when the owner of a vehicle is liable for a violation based on the vehicle's identification, including but not limited to parking infractions and violations recorded by automatic traffic safety cameras, as long as the violation occurred while they were the vehicle owner.  The JIS Parking sub-system was originally created with this in mind.  However, with the photo enforced violations, RCW 46.63.170(1)(f) and RCW 46.63.075(2) allowed for exceptions to the rule, though no changes were made to the JIS Parking sub-system for those exceptions.  The following work-around has been developed to help courts with those exceptions:

If someone other than the listed registered owner is responsible for paying a vehicle related violation:

• Do NOT add the responsible party as the vehicle owner - it is a statewide owner record, and you could be impacting other courts' cases.
• DO add the responsible party as the Defendant on the Parking Special Request (PSR) screen - last name, first name format so you can use the CNCI command to search on the PR-type name record.
• Make a Docket Entry explaining who is responsible for payment on the case. 
• Add the Case Condition Code of PRK - Parking Payment Review to the case with a Review Date set for one month after the fine should be paid in full.
• Track these matters carefully by running the Case Review (CRS) Report, monthly.  If the case is left to go beyond the Review Date the Automated Delinquency Process will run and will prepare a Delinquent Notice to the registered owner.

If the responsible party does not pay:

• Manually add the Cost Fee Code PDF - Parking Delinquency Fee (up to $25, defined by local ordinance).
  [Do NOT add the code FPR - Parking Infraction FTA/FTR Fee; there is no statutory authority for the use of that code, at this time.]
• Manually prepare a delinquent notice to the responsible party.  Either complete the delinquent notice using the same form or postcard as the automatic ones, filling in all fields normally completed by JIS, or develop your own Delinquent Notice Template for use on these specific cases.  If a template is used it must have all of the same language as the pre-printed forms.
• Add the Case Condition Code of PRK again with a new Review Date set for 30-90 days after the delinquent notice was sent to allow the responsible party the full 30 days of the notice to pay and still prevent the system from running the Automated Delinquency Process and preparing a Delinquent Notice to the registered owner.
  Note:  You can either change the existing PRK code or mark it as Terminated or Violated then add the new one.  It's up to each court on which option they chose to do.
• Track these matters carefully using the Case Review Report monthly.
  Note:  Courts can choose to utilize another Case Condition Code, in addition to the PRK code, to track the two different issues, so long as the PRK code is on the PLS screen with a future review date.  PRK with a future review date is the only way to prevent the Automated Delinquent Process from running on Vehicle Related Violations.

If the responsible party STILL does not pay:

• Make a docket entry that the matter is manually being sent to collection for non-payment and make an entry on the note line to show the case is in collections.
  Note:  There is no way to manually assign a parking case to collection in the JIS Parking Sub-system.  Courts will need to rely on the docket and note line entries on these matters. 
• Notify the court's collection agency of the responsible party's information and the ticket information. 
  Note:  The Parking Collection Report cannot be used to send the information to the collection agency as it would be listing the vehicle's owner, not the responsible party.  Courts should make arrangements in advance with the collection agency to determine the best way to notify and send these cases manually.
• Add the Case Condition Code of PRK again, with a new Review Date set for 10 years from the date the matter is sent to collections.  Again, the court can modify the previous PRK code to do this step or mark that code as Violated or Terminated and add a new one for the Collection time period. 

Warning: If the matter is not paid in full in 10 years, a Delinquent Notice could issue to the vehicle owner a few days after the PRK review date passes.  It is recommended to utilize another Case Condition Code that will be monitored during the normal monthly tracking, with a Review Date set at least one month prior to the PRK review date.  That would allow the court time to review the case and do the 10 year write-off process, before the Automated Delinquency Process runs. 

RN id: 2358