COURT ORDERED RESTITUTION FAQ

What kinds of cases will COR handle?
Our Court Ordered Restitution (COR) system has been designed to handle any kind of case that has resulted in the defendant being ordered by the court to pay restitution.   The case can have any number of victims, with a different amount owed to each victim.   If you run our Bad Check Prosecution System too, there is a built in interface to commute bad check data directly into court ordered cases once charges are filed.

We collect money orders that are made payable to the victims.  How does COR  handle this?  Does it include a restitution letter to send to the victim advising them that we’ve made a collection?
At the time payments are posted you will designate the payment type as Cash, Check, or Money Order.    There is a Restitution Letter merge with another word processing document that allows you to print a list of payments that you have received for each victim.  The list is pulled automatically based on the payment date range that you provide.

We collect cash and/or money orders that are made payable to our office.  We deposit the money into an account and then write disbursement checks to the victims.   Will COR do this?
Of course.  If your office deposits all payments and then writes checks to the victims, we can do that too.    One nice feature is that when you write disbursement checks, each victim will only receive one check for everything you've collected,  not one check per payment.  The check stub will provide a detailed breakdown of what the check is for, but you'll only print one check per victim.
 
If a defendant’s address changes, do I have to change it for every case?
Absolutely not.  You'll only put the defendant's name/address into the system once,  then each case you have for that defendant is "attached" to that defendant record.  Thus, if you have to change his address (or SSN, DOB, D/L#, etc.) you only change it once.

How hard is it to find out how much a defendant owes?
Very simple.   The very first screen of the defendant inquiry shows the defendant name, address, and balance.  As you drill down and get more details, you'll begin to see the balance for individual cases and victims, but the defendant's total balance is also always on the screen.

What if we never receive payment from the defendant?  Can COR  help me do follow up?
COR contains a report that you can run at any time to print a list of cases which have not had a payment within a recent time period.  For example, you can request a list of who hasn't made a payment in the last 60 days.  

When a defendant makes a payment, how hard is it to post?  Do I have to post it to the case  file and put it on some kind of payment ledger?  
Posting is done by locating the defendant in your files by entering the first part of his/her name, then picking them from an alphabetical list.   Once you have the defendant, you'll see a list of their outstanding cases, where you'll direct how the payment is to be distributed.  Once you post a payment the information becomes available throughout the system - no need to post it to another payment ledger.  

What if the defendant is making partial payments?  Can COR handle partial payments?
Because COR  maintains separate balances on each victim on the case there is no problem accepting partial payments.  In fact, the printed receipt will reflect the payment and  the outstanding balance, so the defendant will know exactly where they stand following their payment.

How is the payment distributed to the victims?
By default, COR is going to attempt to pro-rate the payment among the victims.  For example, if your case has a total balance of $100.00, with three victims with balances of $50,  $30, and $20, the system would set 50% of the payment for the first victim, 30% of the payment for the second victim, and 20% for the last victim.  Of course, you can override this any time you want by simply keying the amounts you want distributed to each victim.   One other neat feature - if one of your victims on the case is for P/A Fees (as brought over from bad checks) then COR will always attempt to pay it first, in full, before it pays any other victims.

My auditor is always on us about having sequentially numbered, non-duplicated receipts.  What does COR do to help me with receipts?
Every payment that is posted in COR is assigned a unique, sequentially numbered receipt.  Even if the receipt isn't printed.  As the receipt number is assigned it is also logged into a receipt history file, which can subsequently be reviewed and printed.   A report is available to list selected receipts, either by date or by receipt#.   Also - if you install our Bad Check Prosecution System it uses the same sequential receipt number file, so your history report would include all payments, whether from BCPS or COR.

What if I don't find a report in COR that gives me the information I want?
While we've tried to anticipate most common report requirements, the possibility exists that you'll need something we didn't plan for.  For example, you might want a report of say, "All defendants with cases totaling over $500.00 that go off of probation in 2000."   Bad news.  We didn't plan for that one. However, we try to be as helpful as possible, and if you have a need for something special, or just something that we've overlooked, we try to accommodate whenever we can.

What if I want to know more than what I can find on this website?
By all means, contact us by any of the methods listed below.   We can answer your specific questions or arrange a product demonstration if you'd like.

 

Dennis Jones & Associates 825 Country Club Drive Camdenton, MO 65020

Phone:  (573) 346-3101                800-862-7174   Fax:    (573) 346-4988 email:  dennis@djonesassoc.com