Rich to Pay Heavier Court Fines?

LAW - JUSTICE
FAIRNESS - REDRESS - ATONEMENT - BALANCE

I see in the news today a proposal by the Road Safety Authority to have a sliding scale of speeding fines based on the income of the offender, in order to act as a greater deterrent for the well off.

 Rich More Likely to Offend

Those who are better off financially tend to have an inflated sense of entitlement, and this has been shown to negatively affect behaviour on the roads. Piff. Berkley etc.

Interestingly, an online survey by "The Journal" suggests that over 60% of Irish drivers are against the sliding scale of fines - I wonder why? http://www.thejournal.ie/poll-drivers-speeding-2487046-Dec2015/

In February 2015,  I wrote an article on this blog about Justice and Atonement. One factor in correcting and updating our medieval system that I suggested was that Court fines should be made proportional to the means of the defendant. The Justice and Atonement issue is so strongly felt by me, that I even went to the trouble of writing to the Minister for Justice and to the Justice Reform Commission. I just got the usual sort of stock replies.

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.ie/2015/02/atonement-redress-andjustice-recent.html

I have very strong feeling about how the Law is currently administered. Our current system of law focuses on simply punishing the guilty parties. It however does little or nothing to compensates the victims and make atonement.

Fine Fines.

When a fine is imposed it usually is not linked to the resources of the guilty party. If a person on £10,000 a year is fined £5,000. By all justice and fairness, a person on £2,000,000 a year should receive a fine of £1,000,000. This should apply not just to motoring offenses but it should apply across the board. The funds from these fines should go, at least partially, into victim redress and compensation funds. It should be possible nowadays to operate such a system by linking with the taxation system etc.



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