How much unpaid bail could Philadelphia collect?

The head of the Court of Common Please says it would be at most three percent of the one billion dollars the courts are owed on paper.

Published reports say the city of Philadelphia is owed about a Billion dollars in uncollected bail. The Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary committee was worried about such a large figure for uncollected bail. Judge Pamela Dembe, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, assured the committee that only a fraction of the billion dollars is real and able to be collected.

“Hopefully we’ll get some money out of it, we figure even if it’s only one or two percent that’s a good piece of change. But we’re not going to be able to bail out the county of Philadelphia or the state while we’re at it it’s just not going to happen.”

Judge Dembe says many who owe the city money don’t have it nor assets that the city could go after as compensation. She says about 93 percent of those accused of serious crimes do show up for court. The court is working on notifying people via e-mail and text messages.