The 60ish man walked into the courtroom, sweating from the midday heat and clutching an old cloth hand towel he used to cover his mouth when he coughed. The issue he had to settle would have been inconsequential to many people, but for him it was a matter of financial life or death.
The man received a traffic ticket in 2006 for failing to have a driver’s license and failing to have insurance — a $200 ticket that ballooned to $660 because of additional fines for nonpayment. Paying the fine would crush him because he lives on the $674 Social Security disability check he receives each month.
