LaPorte County to use collections vendor 'PayCourt' for older unpaid fines; clerk seeks scanner funding

The LaPorte County clerk told the County Council on Jan. 26 that the county will run a collections pilot with a vendor identified as 'PayCourt' to recover unpaid court fines and fees. Heather (recorded in the minutes and later referenced as Mrs. Clark) said the county will incur no upfront cost and that PayCourt will collect outstanding balances and add a 30% collection fee that is tacked on to the debtor, not deducted from the county’s recovery.

Heather said she ran a report covering Jan. 1–July 1, 2025 showing more than $100,000 in balances in that six‑month window; she said the program will begin with debts older than 90 days and that notice will be published in newspapers and on the county website. When asked whether charges remain on a person’s record, Heather said charges remain unless expunged and that expungement generally cannot occur if money is still owed to the court.

The council also approved $7,500 in appropriation authority for scanners that had been budgeted in 2025 but not purchased, and a separate bundle of clerk‑office items: marriage license binders, $25,000 for part‑time scanning payroll (to continue digitizing older records), and funding for a records storage/access solution. The clerk said part‑time scanning is ongoing to convert older order books into searchable PDFs and that the position may shift to maintenance work afterward.

Separately, Treasurer Dan Berney reported that the county earned $3,136,267.52 in investment interest last year and noted that roughly $10,000,000 in personal property tax balances have been written off under a 10‑year state rule; he said restoring clerk staff will help the county pursue recoveries more effectively.

Next steps: the clerk will run first PayCourt reports next week and report back after tax season on recovery results; scanner purchases and scanning payroll were authorized so staff can proceed.