Text file: 219.txt
author: Feniks
downvotes: 7
end consideration date: 2009-12-27
id: '219'
number comments: 93
number views: 16007
proposal type: Competent authority response
response: 'Response from the Ministry of Transport We are no strangers to the idea
  of paying fines fairly according to income. In fact, uniform penalties lead to formal
  equality before the law, but not to real equality. But determining the means of
  each individual at the time of sentencing is not a straightforward process. It also
  affects finance and taxation, and computer support is needed... This is a systematic
  issue and is, in principle, a matter for the Ministry of Justice, which is why we
  have asked them to comment on this issue. The Ministry of Justice has given the
  following position on the proposal: "We agree with the statement in the letter that,
  pursuant to Article 26 of the Law on Misdemeanours (Official Gazette of the Republic
  of Slovenia, No 3/07 - official consolidated text, 17/08, 21/08 - corrected...,
  76/08 - ZIKS-1C and 128/09, hereinafter referred to as "the Act on Misdemeanours"),
  the imposition of fines in the range is only possible in the case of the issuance
  of a decision on a misdemeanour or a judgment on a misdemeanour, but not in the
  case of the issuance of a payment order, but first of all it is necessary to underline
  the purpose and the importance of the payment order in the expedited misdemeanour
  proceedings.  The order for payment is intended to sanction offenders ''on the spot''
  and, therefore, fines for offences which are personally detected or established
  by technical means or devices by authorised officials of the offending authority
  should be fixed at the appropriate amounts in the rules governing offences (taking
  into account the different socio-economic situation of the offenders). The procedure
  for issuing a payment order is intended to be swift, and the offender is therefore
  allowed to pay half of the fine within eight days of the payment order becoming
  final, provided that he or she does not apply for judicial protection. It is precisely
  the possibility to pay half of the fine that is one of the possible ways to take
  into account the fact that some infringers have low incomes. However, pursuant to
  Article 57(2) of the Law on Misdemeanours, the offender also has the option of paying
  the fine in instalments, and this right is expressly indicated in the payment order.  The
  current amendments and additions to the Act on Misdemeanours have almost lost the
  distinction between the payment order and the decision on the misdemeanour, and
  the introduction of the possibility to take into account economic and social criteria
  in the payment order would reduce this distinction even further. If, in the procedure
  for issuing a payment order, the criteria set out in Article 26(3) of the Act on
  Misdemeanours for the imposition of a fine were taken into account: the offender''s
  financial situation, the amount of his salary, his other income, his assets and
  his family obligations, this would make the work of the offence authorities more
  difficult, since they would have to obtain that information "at the place where
  the offence was committed". The Ministry of Justice considers that the implementation
  of the imposition of fines on the basis of economic and social criteria in the procedure
  for issuing a payment order is questionable from the point of view of the efficiency
  and speed of this procedure, and notwithstanding the above, your proposal will be
  considered by the working group established for the preparation of the draft Law
  on Amendments and Additions to the Law on Misdemeanours at one of its meetings."'
response date: 2010-03-25
response due date: null
sent date: 2009-11-27
title: Assessment of fines for traffic offences based on income and assets
upvotes: 23
url: https://predlagam.vladi.si/predlog/219
