Criminal Fines, Tickets, and Restitution in Bankruptcy

Short answer: No. Criminal fines, criminal-court fees, and restitution ordered as part of a criminal sentence survive bankruptcy — Chapter 7 doesn't erase them, and even Chapter 13's broader discharge specifically carves them out. Filing bankruptcy also does not stop a criminal case, a probation violation, or a collections effort tied to a criminal sentence; the "automatic stay" that halts most creditors the moment you file has a specific exception for criminal proceedings. There's more nuance around ordinary civil traffic tickets and some non-criminal government penalties, and bankruptcy can still help with the debts that often ride alongside a criminal case — but don't file expecting a fine or restitution order to disappear.

What bankruptcy cannot touch

Criminal fines and restitution

Bankruptcy Code 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(7) excepts from discharge any debt "for a fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit, and is not compensation for actual pecuniary loss." Courts have long read this to cover the fines and court costs a criminal court imposes on you. Restitution gets its own, even firmer protection: the Supreme Court held in Kelly v. Robinson (1986) that restitution ordered as part of a criminal sentence isn't dischargeable, even though the money goes to a private victim, because it's part of the state's criminal-justice system, not an ordinary debt. Federal restitution orders get their own explicit exception at 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(13). Put simply: if a criminal (or juvenile-delinquency) court ordered you to pay a fine, court costs, or restitution as part of your sentence, Chapter 7 will not wipe it out.

Chapter 13 doesn't erase it either

Chapter 13's discharge — earned after you complete a three-to-five-year repayment plan — is genuinely broader than Chapter 7's in a handful of narrow ways (a point covered in our Chapter 13 discharge guide). But criminal fines and restitution aren't one of them. 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a)(3) specifically excludes from the Chapter 13 discharge any debt "for restitution, or a criminal fine, included in a sentence on the debtor's conviction of a crime." Restitution or damages awarded for a willful or malicious injury that caused someone's death or personal injury is excluded too, under § 1328(a)(4). So completing a five-year Chapter 13 plan, however difficult, will not clear a criminal fine or restitution balance the way it can clear credit card debt.

The automatic stay doesn't stop your criminal case

Filing any bankruptcy chapter triggers an "automatic stay" — an instant, court-ordered freeze on most creditor lawsuits, calls, wage garnishments, and repossession attempts. People sometimes hope it will also pause a pending criminal matter tied to unpaid fines, a bad-check charge, or a probation condition to pay restitution. It won't. 11 U.S.C. § 362(b)(1) exempts "the commencement or continuation of a criminal action or proceeding against the debtor" from the stay entirely. Your criminal case — arraignment, trial, sentencing, probation hearings — proceeds on its own schedule regardless of your bankruptcy filing. Bankruptcy also cannot stop a prosecutor from pursuing genuinely criminal collection remedies. (What it usually can stop is a creditor who threatens criminal prosecution over an ordinary unpaid debt, like a bounced check, purely as a collection tactic — courts have found that kind of threat isn't a real criminal proceeding and can violate the stay.)

Where it gets more nuanced

Civil traffic tickets and parking tickets

An ordinary traffic or parking ticket that was never part of a criminal conviction is usually treated as a civil penalty, not a criminal fine. Courts still often find these nondischargeable in Chapter 7 under the general fine-and-penalty language of § 523(a)(7), because the money is "payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit" and isn't compensation for a loss. But because § 1328(a)(2) — the Chapter 13 exception list for ordinary § 523(a) debts — does not include § 523(a)(7) by cross-reference the way it includes fraud or support debts, some courts treat civil traffic and parking fines as dischargeable once a Chapter 13 debtor completes the plan, even though the same debt would survive a Chapter 7 case. This is a genuinely unsettled, court-by-court area of law, and outcomes vary by jurisdiction and by exactly how the debt is characterized (civil penalty vs. criminal fine, license-suspension consequences, whether it's already gone to collections). Don't assume either way — ask a bankruptcy attorney how your court treats it before you count on relief.

Non-criminal government penalties

The same § 523(a)(7) analysis applies to other civil, non-criminal penalties a government agency imposes — code-violation fines, some regulatory penalties, certain false-claims or civil-forfeiture assessments. A penalty that's punitive (meant to punish) is more likely nondischargeable; one that's compensatory (meant to reimburse the government's actual loss) is more likely dischargeable, and — as with traffic tickets — Chapter 13 sometimes reaches further than Chapter 7. This distinction is fact-specific and litigated case by case, so treat any of these debts as something to raise with an attorney rather than something to guess about.

What bankruptcy CAN do

Even though it won't touch the fine or restitution order itself, bankruptcy can still meaningfully help with the debt load that often surrounds a criminal case:

• Ordinary consumer debt you ran up around the same time — credit cards, medical bills, personal loans — is dischargeable in the normal way, freeing up income you can put toward court-ordered payments instead.
• Bail-bond company debt owed to a commercial bail bondsman is typically an ordinary unsecured debt and can generally be discharged, unlike the fine or restitution itself.
• Private collection-agency accounts a court sold or referred your fine/fee balance to may still be governed by the § 523(a)(7) exception if the underlying obligation was a criminal fine — the exception follows the debt, not just the original creditor — so don't assume it converts into ordinary dischargeable debt just because a collector now holds it.
• A Chapter 13 plan can still restructure the payment schedule around a nondischargeable fine or restitution balance, letting you pay it over the life of the plan alongside your other bills instead of facing a lump-sum demand, even though the balance itself survives to the end.
• Bankruptcy can relieve everything else so that court-ordered payments — often required to avoid a probation violation or license suspension — become the priority you can actually afford.

What to do

1. Get the actual order or judgment for any fine, fee, or restitution — the exact language (criminal sentence vs. civil citation) matters for how it's treated.
2. Tell your bankruptcy attorney about any open criminal case, probation, or restitution order up front — it affects both what's dischargeable and how your case should be structured.
3. Don't stop paying court-ordered fines or restitution because you filed bankruptcy — missing those payments can trigger a probation violation or new criminal exposure that bankruptcy has no power over.
4. If you're behind on restitution or fines and worried about jail for nonpayment, talk to the criminal court (or your public defender/probation officer) directly about a payment plan or indigency hearing — that's a separate process from bankruptcy.
5. List the debt on your bankruptcy schedules anyway, even if you expect it to survive — accurate disclosure is required, and your attorney needs the full picture to plan the rest of your case.
6. If your fine or ticket is civil rather than criminal, ask your attorney specifically whether your district's courts have addressed its dischargeability in Chapter 7 versus Chapter 13 — this is one of the more jurisdiction-dependent corners of bankruptcy law.

Related reading

For the fuller picture of which debts survive bankruptcy generally, see What Debts Can Bankruptcy Discharge (and Which It Can't). For how Chapter 13's discharge differs from Chapter 7's, see our Chapter 13 discharge guide. You can read the statutes themselves and general filing information on the federal courts' bankruptcy pages at uscourts.gov.

Beware debt-relief and debt-settlement pitches

Criminal-justice debt is a common target for scams: companies that promise to "settle" restitution or court fines for pennies on the dollar, or non-attorney "petition preparers" who claim they can get a fine discharged if you just file the right paperwork. Neither can deliver on that promise — court-ordered fines and restitution are protected by federal law regardless of who prepares your filing, and a petition preparer who gives you legal advice about what's dischargeable is acting outside the law (a bankruptcy petition preparer may type your forms but is barred from offering legal advice). If you can't afford a bankruptcy attorney, look into legal aid, a law-school bankruptcy clinic, your bankruptcy court's self-help resources, or a nonprofit agency on the U.S. Trustee's approved credit-counseling list at justice.gov/ust. The CFPB and FTC both publish free, plain-language guidance on debt relief and how to spot a scam at consumerfinance.gov and consumer.ftc.gov.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a specific fine, fee, or restitution order is dischargeable can turn on how your court characterizes the debt and on case law in your jurisdiction — talk to a licensed bankruptcy attorney, or a U.S. Trustee-approved credit-counseling agency if cost is a barrier, before you decide what to file or assume any debt will go away.