When You Cannot Pay
N.J.S.A. 2B:12-23.1 — community service or installments in municipal court, and relief after a default
At the hearing. If a municipal court finds a person cannot pay a penalty in full or has failed to pay one, it may order community service instead, or payment in installments over a period it sets.
- Reduce or suspend the penalty, or modify the installment plan.
- Give credit for each day of confinement already served for the default.
- Revoke the unpaid part if circumstances changed or payment would be unjust.
- Order community service instead.
- Impose another lawful alternative to payment.
Those are what the court may do after a default when it finds the person does not have the ability to pay. Restitution is not a penalty under the section.
Restitution to a victim, license holds for unpaid fines, and the constitutional rule against jailing someone only for being poor are not set out on this page. What a court will do in a particular case is a question for a licensed New Jersey attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- N.J.S.A. 2B:12-23.1 — Municipal court penalties in installments, and alternatives
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed New Jersey attorney.