Private Debt Collectors Are Profiting Off America's $27 Billion In Court Debt

"Court fees" may just sound like a nuisance, but they are actually a huge problem. People without a lot of money who receive these fines may not be able to pay them right away. In cases like that, the debt then gets referred to a private debt collection agency. That's where the real exploitation takes place. This interview previously aired on Peacock on July 9th, 2021. Sam Seder discusses private debt collection with David Sirota.

We stream our live show every day at 12 PM ET.

We need your help to keep providing free videos! Support the Majority Report's video content by going to

Watch the Majority Report live MF at 12 p.m. EST at youtube.com/samseder or listen via daily podcast at

Download our FREE app

SUPPORT the show by becoming a member

We Have Merch!!!

LIKE us on Facebook

FOLLOW us on Twitter

SUBSCRIBE to us on YouTube

Sam Seder: You start by following a guy named Matt Holland who lives in Spring Hill Florida. He was arrested and spent some time into in prison for breaking into cars with friends to steal stereos but the big issue was he was facing state court fees and then this metastasized tell us about this story and how it's indicative of a major problem in many states across the country.

David Sirota: Well this is a story by the daily posters Walker Bragman and it's a story that we've been following as on the whole which is the "debt collection industry", and I think people don't think about it as a whole industry, but it really is a multi-billion dollar industry and the story at the beginning of that piece of our latest reporting on this is a story about a guy who essentially just gets buried under more and more court fees which snowball. And this is not an isolated incident. We are living in a country now where at least and I want to underscore at least where $27 billion of outstanding court debt is now out there these are fees related to if you're appearing in front of a court anything from municipal violations to fines to everything that is related to a person being in front of the judicial system $27 billion of outstanding court debt. And the story is not just about that debt it's about the fact that state and local governments and by the way the IRS are starting to hire for-profit debt collectors to collect that debt now the one of the most unbelievable things about this is that you have an IRS that has been has seen its budget slashed it is reducing audits of millionaires okay so essentially in using the lingo it is reducing its debt collection efforts against very very rich people at a time when we know the estimates are that the top one percent is not paying somewhere between 174 billion and 250 billion dollars a year in owed but unpaid taxes. So on one hand you have the debt collection part of government essentially reducing its effort to collect that debt from the top one percent while also hiring for-profit debt collectors to go out and try to collect 27 billion dollars worth of outstanding court fees. And here's the thing when you hire a for-profit debt collector what you're doing is you're in many cases these debt collectors are allowed to attach additional fees onto the fees that people owe additional fees essentially to pay the profits or boost the profits of the debt collector themselves anywhere from 25 percent to 40. So if you're somebody who has outstanding fees and you get one of these private debt collectors on you you're not only going to necessarily pay the fees you're going to have to pay the fee of the debt collector as well to pad their profits. This is happening in states across the country.