Cumberland County court collections unit reports $4.4 million collected and $67.2 million owed in 2024

Cumberland County court collections staff reported to the County Finance meeting that the county’s court collections unit collected $4,425,747 in 2024 while total accounts receivable on county dockets stood at $67,193,271.

Toy Smith, a staff member in the county court collections unit, told commissioners the unit’s work returned $1,809,515 toward restitution in 2024 and that the Clerk of Courts dispersed $5,488,196 overall: $1,036,507 to the state, $3,172,120 to the county, $185,696 to municipalities, $999,098 to restitution and about $870,000 to other recipients such as prothonotary collections and agencies. "We are paid in full by April 6," Smith said, referring to the point in the year when collections exceeded the unit’s operating and related processing costs.

The report included detailed age-of-account data showing consistent collection performance over five years: roughly 64–65% of receivables collected within 0–90 days, 29–30% collected after 91-plus days, and the remaining accounts categorized as no payment. Smith reported that $42,888,105 of the total was collected within the first 90 days in 2024. The unit itself recovered $4,425,747 in fines, fees and restitution; of that amount $1,809,515 was restitution.

Smith summarized enforcement tools and activity for 2024: administrative hearings produced $324,411, collections court accounted for $4,312, and driver’s license suspensions brought in $481,872. The unit issued 1,161 bench warrants in 2024, and staff spent roughly 476 hours responding to and processing warrant-related work, which Smith estimated averages about four hours per warrant. She said the office runs monthly administrative hearings and uses driver-license suspensions, bench warrants and negotiated payment plans as primary enforcement methods.

On long‑outstanding accounts, Smith said the unit twice-yearly runs reports to identify and attempt to resolve older cases. "This is gonna surface. And if you know it's out there, it's best just to address it," she said, noting some outstanding balances reflect people who have not made a payment in more than five years or who are incarcerated and therefore harder to pursue.

Commissioners asked for context and comparison. One commissioner asked whether collection rates were likely to decline after intensive post‑COVID enforcement in 2021–22; Smith responded that many of the cases subject to driver‑license suspension were addressed in earlier years and the unit now manages newer nonpaying cases. Another commissioner asked how Cumberland compares with other counties; Smith said statewide comparisons are available from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) but that county size and case mix affect rankings. A participant added that among third‑class counties Cumberland is near the top for collections percentage‑wise, while cautioning that smaller counties can show higher percentages because of population differences.

Smith described the county’s approach to restitution priority. A participant at the meeting said a statutory requirement directs at least 50% of collections to restitution, and a later administrative order from a past president judge directed the Clerk of Courts to allocate 100% of certain receipts to restitution first; speakers at the meeting said victims are prioritized in the dispersal sequence. The meeting record showed the county returned nearly $1 million toward restitution in 2024 and highlighted that victims' payments are prioritized before costs and fines in most cases.

The presentation included operational cost figures: the court collections unit’s operating cost for 2024 was about $758,542, with additional county processing and software costs bringing the total cost-to-collect to $775,703 for unit operations and $840,302 including related offices. Smith said the unit’s figures translate to a cost to collect of roughly $0.17 per dollar (unit-only) and about $0.15 per dollar when broader county costs are included; she summarized that for every dollar spent the county collected roughly $5.88 (unit-only) to $6.67 (total) in 2024. The presentation noted the unit had a net gain of $3,667,205 after operating costs and disbursements.

Smith said the unit pursues out‑of‑state debtors through contracted collection agencies when local enforcement is not feasible; those agencies keep 25% of amounts they recover, and the fee is assessed to the defendant, not the county. Smith said the current collection vendor has been more successful than prior contracts, which yielded very low recovery rates.

Commissioners and staff praised the unit’s work and asked for follow‑up: one commissioner asked Smith to provide comparative statewide figures once the AOPC data are updated so the county can benchmark performance. No formal policy actions or votes related to the collections report were taken during the presentation; the meeting did approve minutes and later adjourned.

The report and questions highlighted the unit’s emphasis on early collection, the use of driver‑license suspensions and warrants as enforcement tools, and the continued backlog of long‑outstanding cases that the unit is chipping away at through periodic reporting and targeted outreach.