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June 21, 2009

City court hires a collection agency

Lebanon — Lebanon City Court has hired a collection agency.

Chet Klene, CEO of Eagle Accounts Group LLC, and City Court Judge Tamie Morog recently explained to the city council how the arrangement will work.

Klene said there is no cost to taxpayers. Eagle Accounts makes money by keeping a 30 percent markup on fees and court costs, which it collects from the defendants. The original fines and fees go to the city court.

“There is zero out-of-pocket cost to the city,” Klene said.

Morog said her court clerk works only 32 hours a week, not enough time to keep up with paperwork and chase down defiant defendants.

“I guess I could issue body attachments on everybody,” Morog said. “But that doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do at this time.”

A body attachment is an arrest order issued after a defendant does not appear at a “show cause” hearing, which determines why a person should not be convicted of contempt of court charges.

Morog cited the weak economy as one factor in her reluctance to have defendants arrested.

Klene said most of the collections are for traffic tickets issued to college students or out-of-state drivers. Eagle Accounts tracks the defendants with a skip-tracing program.

“It’s just sitting down and trying to find them, whereas your court and clerk are probably overwhelmed,” Klene said.

“It’s just good, old-fashioned bloodhound work,” he said.

Collected money will be sent to city court weekly, Klene said.

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