Columbia Falls city court offering amnesty later this month

Have an outstanding ticket? Warrant? If it’s from the City of Columbia Falls, the court is looking to give you a break.

From Oct. 29 through Nov. 1 the Columbia Falls City Court is offering amnesty to people who have unpaid fines and outstanding warrants from the city.

“We’re trying to give people a venue to get on the right track without fear of being taken to jail,” said judge Kristi L. Curtis.

With a warrant for failure to comply, for example, the person typically owes the city money. Some people have failed to make payments on previous fines.

As such, their driver’s license has been suspended.

To qualify for amnesty, a person must pay $100, unless the balance due is less and a $50 payment for any additional case with a driver’s license hold and/or a bench warrant.

In exchange, the court will release the hold on the driver’s license, though if a person still owes on fines, they would have to continue to make the payments.

Judge Curtis noted that people often don’t come to court because once they default on a payment plan, they have to pay all of the fines to get their license back. So if a person owes, say, a $1,000, they can’t afford that lump-sum payment.

This amnesty gives them an option of getting back to good standing with the court, and their license back.

If the person has a failure to appear warrant, they would have to make an initial court appearance and enter a plea. If they plead guilty or no contest, they will be sentenced and can elect to pay the fines in full or on a payment plan.

If they plead not guilty, they will need to return to the court for an omnibus hearing on Dec. 11.

All told, the court estimates there are 370 outstanding bench warrants and about the same number of driver’s license suspensions still on the books.

While the bulk are in Flathead County, some are out of state. as well. But failure to pay fines in Montana will also result in a driver’s license suspension in 48 of the 50 states in the U.S., Curtis noted.

Curtis said the idea came from court clerk Lacey Pederson, who said the police department she worked for in New Mexico had used an amnesty period successfully before.