Reflecting on Last Year's Warrant Clinic
- Sahara Jama
- Sep 19
- 3 min read
By Sahara Jama, NOWCRJ Research and Organizing Coordinator
We are on the eve of the 2025 Warrant Clinic.
It's been about 12 months since we, along with our community partners, held the 2024 Orleans Parish Warrant Clinic at Joe Brown Park in New Orleans East. Even after all this time, I'm still approached almost weekly—sometimes multiple times a week—by people discussing how important and necessary the event was, or asking when or if we'll organize another one. And yes, we are doing it all over again this September. Last year's warrant clinic was such a significant event, and as we have prepared for the next one, I've been reflecting on its profound impact on our community.
The previous clinics we’ve organized helped us to understand how vast the problem is and how detrimental municipal fines and fees have been for New Orleanians. Our organization strongly believes that no one should be criminalized or punished due to economic insecurity, poverty, or underemployment. When community members cannot afford to pay a fine or fee, they face additional punishment through late fees that make paying their debt even more unattainable. This creates a vicious cycle: being financially disadvantaged leads to mounting debt, which creates barriers to employment opportunities, ultimately trapping many in a harmful cycle that only deepens their economic hardship.
Here is a quick summary of the key metrics:
Metric | Count |
Cases Addressed | 600+ |
Fines & Fees Waived | $375,000+ |
Attachments Resolved | 70 |
Looking back at these numbers, it's abundantly clear how profoundly these fines, fees, and attachments impact our community. These metrics represent more than just statistics—each one reflects a person's everyday life, a family's reality, and a barrier to economic stability.
Here are some key takeaways and reflections from the event:
High Turnout: We were amazed by the number of people who came to the clinic and how many were unable to attend and reached out asking when we’d have another. It showed how prominent the need for such events is and the community's willingness to engage.
Positive Interactions: The interactions between attendees, volunteers, and legal professionals were overwhelmingly positive. There was a sense of mutual respect and understanding.
Successful Resolutions: Many individuals were able to resolve their warrants, clear their fees, and some even got their drivers licenses reinstated that day. This was a huge win for everyone involved.
Community Support: The event wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support from volunteers, our community partners, funders, and the legal professionals that participated.
We have learned a lot from last year's clinic and are committed to making the 2025 clinic and future ones even better. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to last year’s success, those who have sustained their support and organizations new to the clinic.
We also want to highlight the fantastic commitment by many worker members, our interns and staff to call so many registrants and ensure they know how they can best be assisted this year. We look forward to continuing to serve our community and how we can build on this success to get to the root issues of why warrants, fines and fees are so devastating to the economic opportunities of our friends and neighbors.
Stay tuned for our report back after the 2025 Warrant Clinic and how you can get involved moving forward!
*** READ MORE ABOUT THE SYSTEMIC ISSUES OF MUNICIPAL FINES AND FEES
in our ARCHIVAL REPORT
