Readers may find it useful to read plaintiff's legal complaint verbatim, to fully understand the legal claims to be tried. A copy is available at ACLU-NC's Web site. (Per Embarcadero Media's ToU, I must omit the link, but it's easy to find.)

I'm grateful to co-plaintiffs Debt Collective and Mr. McCree for putting a much-needed spotlight on a dark and festering problem: Starting in the 1990s, repeated cutbacks and recessions cash-strapped local court system to the point where they have sought to balance their books by soaking the poor through runaway "civil assessment" charges and hiked-up fines -- and San Mateo County has been among the worst offenders of California's 58 counties. Basically, our county and others like it have reinvented the Victorian Era's hopeless debt imprisonment, except without Victorian prisons.

I haven't yet found Alameda County Superior Court's docket number, which would help in following this case.

Rick Moen
(Web-search my name, if you need to contact me)