In 2010, the city of Philadelphia launched an initiative to collect millions of dollars in outstanding court fees, supervision fees and bail judgments associated with criminal cases dating to the 1970s. The move was intended to generate much needed revenue, but people who had long since served their time were confronted by bills for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars that they’d had no idea they owed. Some are struggling to pay their mortgages or secure public benefits due to the outstanding debt; others have been threatened with jail time unless they pay.
The initiative is the focus of Pay Up! Criminal Justice Debt in Philadelphia, a 30-minute documentary produced by three students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The documentary is the centerpiece of a course called Visual Legal Advocacy, taught by law professor Regina Austin. It’s the only formal course of its kind at a U.S. law school, although Stanford Law School has a student-led project that produces legal documentaries and a similar student-run group at Yale Law School began making documentaries in 2010.
