AB2428 - Criminal fees.

Amended IN Assembly May 18, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 20, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 2428 Introduced by Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez (Coauthors: Assembly Members Rogers and Schultz) February 20, 2026 An act to amend Sections 6157 and 71386 of, and to repeal and add Section 68635 of, of the Government Code, to amend Section 11374.5 of, and to add Section 11470.5 to, the Health and Safety Code, to amend Sections 597.3, 1203.1a, 1203.1i, 1205.3, 1209.5, 4011.1, and 4018.6 of, and to add Section 1210.2 to, the Penal Code, to amend Sections 42007 and 42008.8 of the Vehicle Code, and to repeal Section 730.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to fees. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2428, as amended, Celeste Rodriguez. Criminal fees. Existing law imposes various fees, contingent upon a criminal arrest, prosecution, or conviction, for the cost of administering the criminal justice system, including traffic violator school fees, costs for when a minor is adjudged a ward of the court, as specified, or costs incurred by a state or local agency for the disposal of various substances if the person is convicted of the sale, possession, or transportation of a controlled substance, as specified. This bill would repeal the authority to collect many of those fees, among others. The bill would make the unpaid balance of most court-imposed costs unenforceable and uncollectible and would require any portion of a judgment imposed by those costs to be vacated. The bill would relieve a person who is sentenced to state prison or confined in a county jail from being required to pay any trial court filing fees or costs related to the person’s underlying criminal conviction. Existing law requires, among others, the state and certain cities, to accept personal checks in addition to any other authorized form of payment drawn, as specified, for the payment of certain obligations if the person issuing the check meets specified conditions. This bill would authorize those entities to accept personal checks, in addition to any other authorized form of payment, as payment for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding without regard to those conditions. The bill would prohibit a public entity from imposing a charge to recover processing and collection costs for returned checks for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding. The bill would make related findings and declarations. The bill would also make various conforming changes. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Approximately 80 percent of criminal defendants in California are indigent and too many enter the criminal legal system due to the criminalization of their poverty. (b) State law authorizes or requires courts to impose criminal administrative fees on these disproportionately low-income Californians. These fees are used to fund government, including counties, courts, programs, state and local agencies, and law enforcement. (c) Because Black and brown Californians are subjected to targeted policing and are overrepresented at every state of the criminal legal system, they are disproportionately sanctioned with criminal fees and burdened with the associated debt. (d) The assessment of criminal fees creates a two-tiered legal system based on wealth. Those who can afford to pay avoid further consequences, while those who cannot are burdened by court-ordered debt and subject to additional penalties, including incarceration. (e) Many of these fees are assessed simply because Californians cannot immediately pay debt in full or are struggling to pay court-ordered debt. (f) Because these fees are often assigned to people who simply cannot afford to pay them, they make poor people, their families, and their communities poorer. (g) According to a report by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the average debt incurred for court-ordered fines and fees was roughly equal to the annual income for survey respondents. (h) A national survey of formerly incarcerated people found that families often bear the burden of fees, and that 83 percent of the people responsible for paying these costs are women. (i) Criminal administrative fees have no formal punitive or public safety function. Instead, they undermine public safety because the debt they cause can limit access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Court-ordered debt can also affect credit scores, result in wage or bank account garnishment, or tax return interception. (j) Research also shows that criminal administrative fees can push individuals into underground economies and undermine reentry by causing individuals to turn to criminal activity or predatory lending to pay their debts. (k) Since the fees are imposed on people who are unable to pay them, criminal administrative fees are difficult to collect and typically cost counties almost as much or more than they end up collecting in revenue. (l) Funding government on the backs of racially marginalized and poor communities is cruel and ineffective policy. Charging these fees traps families in cyclical poverty where families have to choose between paying off court-ordered debt and paying rent, or buying food and other necessities. SEC. 2. It is the intent of the Legislature to eliminate the assessment of certain fees on low-income Californians who cannot afford to pay court-ordered debt. SEC. 3. Section 6157 of the Government Code is amended to read: 6157. (a) Except as provided in subdivision (e), the state, and each city, whether general law or chartered, county, and district, each subdivision, department, board, commission, body, or agency of the foregoing, shall accept personal checks, in addition to any other authorized form of payment, drawn in its favor or in favor of a designated official thereof, in payment for any license, permit, or fee, or in payment of any obligation owing to the public agency or trust deposit, if the person issuing the check furnishes to the person authorized to receive payment satisfactory proof of residence in this state and if the personal check is drawn on a banking institution located in this state. (b) If any personal check, corporate check, cashier’s check, money order, or other draft method offered in payment pursuant to this section is returned without payment, for any reason, a reasonable charge for the returned check, not to exceed the actual costs incurred by the public agency, may be imposed to recover the public agency’s processing and collection costs, except that a charge shall not be imposed in regard to a payment for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding. This charge may be added to, and become part of, any underlying obligation other than an obligation which constitutes a lien on real property, and a different method of payment for that payment and future payments by this person may be prescribed. (c) The acceptance of a personal check, corporate check, cashier’s check, money order, or other draft method pursuant to this section constitutes payment of the obligation owed to the payee public agency to the extent of the amount of the check as of the date of acceptance when, but not before, the check is duly paid. (d) The provisions in subdivision (b) prohibiting a returned check charge being added to, and becoming a part of, an obligation which constitutes a lien on real property do not apply to obligations under the Veterans’ Farm and Home Purchase Act of 1974 (Article 3.1 (commencing with Section 987.50) of Chapter 6 of Division 4 of the Military and Veterans Code). (e) The state, and each city, whether general law or chartered, county, and district, each subdivision, department, board, commission, body, or agency of the foregoing, may accept personal checks in addition to any other authorized form of payment drawn in its favor or in favor of a designated official thereof, in payment for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding. (f) An entity or jurisdiction that chooses to accept checks in payment for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding does so at their own risk and is prohibited from charging a fee for returned checks or insufficient funds. (g) Beginning January 1, 2027, returned check fees for payments for court-ordered debt relating to a criminal proceeding are unenforceable and uncollectible and any portion of a judgment imposing those costs, shall be vacated. SEC. 4. SEC. 3. Section 68635 of the Government Code is repealed. SEC. 5. SEC. 4. Section 68635 is added to the Government Code, to read: 68635. (a) This section applies only to waivers of trial court fees. (b) Notwithstanding any other law, a person who is sentenced to state prison or confined in a county jail shall not be required to pay trial court filing fees or costs related to the person’s incarceration for the underlying criminal conviction. (c) Beginning January 1, 2027, the unpaid balance of any court-imposed costs pursuant to this section as it read on December 31, 2026, is unenforceable and uncollectible and any portion of a judgment imposing those costs shall be vacated. SEC. 6. Section 71386 of the Government Code is amended to read: 71386. (a) Each superior court shall adopt a written policy, consistent with rules adopted by, or trial court financial policies and procedures authorized by, the Judicial Council under subdivision (a) of Section 77206, governing the acceptance of checks and money orders in payment of any fees, fines, or bail deposits. The policy shall permit clerks to accept checks and money orders under conditions that tend to assure their validity. (b) A court shall accept a personal check, bank cashier’s check, or money order for payment of any fee or fine, or for a deposit of bail for any offense that is not declared to be a felony, provided the check or money order meets the criteria established in subdivision (a). However, no court shall be required to accept a check in excess of three hundred dollars ($300) from a defendant in custody as a deposit of bail for any alleged violation of the Penal Code. (c) The acceptance of a check pursuant to this section constitutes payment of the obligation owed to the payee public agency to the extent of the amount of the check as of the date of acceptance. (d) An entity or jurisdiction that chooses to accept a check accepts it at their own risk and is prohibited from charging a fee for returned checks or insufficient funds. (e) Beginning January 1, 2027, returned check fees are unenforceable and uncollectible and any portion of a judgment imposing those costs shall be vacated. SEC. 7. SEC. 5. Section 11374.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 11374.5. (a) Any manufacturer of a controlled substance who disposes of any hazardous substance that is a controlled substance or a chemical used in, or is a byproduct of, the manufacture of a controlled substance in violation of any law regulating the disposal of hazardous substances or hazardous waste is guilty of a public offense punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for two, three, or four years or in the county jail not exceeding one year. (b) (1) In addition to any other penalty or liability imposed by law, a person who is convicted of violating subdivision (a), or any person who is convicted of the manufacture or disposal of any hazardous substance that is a controlled substance or a chemical used in, or is a byproduct of, the manufacture of a controlled substance in violation of any law, shall pay a penalty equal to the amount of the actual cost incurred by the state or local agency to remove and dispose of the hazardous substance that is a controlled substance or a chemical used in, or is a byproduct of, the manufacture of a controlled substance and to take removal action with respect to any release of the hazardous substance or any items or materials contaminated by that release, if the state or local agency requests the prosecuting authority to seek recovery of that cost. The court shall transmit all penalties collected pursuant to this subdivision to the county treasurer of the county in which the court is located for deposit in a special account in the county treasury. The county treasurer shall pay that money at least once a month to the agency that requested recovery of the cost for the removal action. The county may retain up to 5 percent of any assessed penalty for appropriate and reasonable administrative costs attributable to the collection and disbursement of the penalty. (2) If the Department of Toxic Substances Control has requested recovery of the cost of removing the hazardous substance that is a controlled substance or a chemical used in, or is a byproduct of, the manufacture of a controlled substance or taking removal action with respect to any release of the hazardous substance, the county treasurer shall transfer funds in the amount of the penalty collected to the Treasurer, who shall deposit the money in the Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account. The Department of Toxic Substances Control may expend the money in the Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the cost of taking removal actions pursuant to Article 16 (commencing with Section 79350) of Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 45. (c) As used in this section the following terms have the following meanings: (1) “Dispose” means to abandon, deposit, intern, or otherwise discard as a final action after use has been achieved or a use is no longer intended. (2) “Hazardous substance” has the same meaning as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 78075. (3) “Hazardous waste” has the same meaning as defined in Section 25117. (4) “Remove” or “removal” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 78135. SEC. 8. SEC. 6. Section 11470.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 11470.5. Beginning January 1, 2027, the unpaid balance of any court-imposed costs pursuant to Section 11374.5 as that section read on December 31, 2026, is unenforceable and uncollectible and any portion of a judgment imposing those costs shall be vacated. SEC. 9. SEC. 7. Section 597.3 of the Penal Code is amended to read: 597.3. (a) Every person who operates a live animal market shall do all of the following: (1) Provide that no animal will be dismembered, flayed, cut open, or have its skin, scales, feathers, or shell removed while the animal is still alive. (2) Provide that no live animals will be confined, held, or displayed in a manner that results, or is likely to result, in injury, starvation, dehydration, or suffocation. (b) As used in this section: (1) “Animal” means frogs, turtles, and birds sold for the purpose of human consumption, with the exception of poultry. (2) “Live animal market” mean [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]