If a court has ordered you to pay restitution, you have to pay it. Restitution is a legally enforceable debt attached to your criminal sentence, and it does not go away because your supervision ends, because you file bankruptcy, or even, in the federal system, because you die. The one thing the court can adjust if your finances genuinely collapse is the payment schedule. The total amount is locked in.
What Happens If You Don’t Pay
Restitution is almost always a condition of probation or supervised release, so falling behind puts your probation officer on notice and can trigger a violation hearing. The court then has to decide whether your non-payment was willful.
The Supreme Court drew the key line in Bearden v. Georgia: a court cannot revoke your probation and jail you just because you are too poor to pay.1Legal Information Institute. Bearden v. Georgia The judge must first look at whether you made real efforts to earn or borrow the money. Only if you willfully refused, or failed to make a good-faith effort, can non-payment itself send you back to custody.
That protection does not shield someone who simply ignores the obligation. If you have income or assets and stop paying, the enforcement toolbox is deep:
- Wage garnishment. The court can order part of your paycheck redirected to the balance. In the federal system this reaches Social Security benefits, which are normally shielded from garnishment but carry a specific exception for criminal restitution.2Social Security Administration. GN 02410.223 – Garnishment for Court Ordered Victim Restitution
- Tax refund intercept. Federal and state refunds can be seized through the Treasury Offset Program and applied to the balance.
- Property liens. A federal restitution order automatically creates a lien against all your property, working like a federal tax lien. You cannot cleanly sell or refinance real estate while it sits there, and the lien lasts 20 years.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3613 – Civil Remedies for Satisfaction of an Unpaid Fine
- Contempt of court. Willful non-payment can bring a contempt finding with its own fines or jail time, separate from any probation revocation.
These tools do not turn off when your supervision ends. Because the restitution order also functions as a civil judgment, the government can keep garnishing wages, intercepting refunds, and maintaining liens for the entire enforcement window, whether or not a probation officer is still checking on you.
If You Genuinely Can’t Pay Right Now
If your finances change for the worse, do not just go silent. Federal law requires you to notify the court and the Attorney General of any material change in your economic circumstances that could affect your ability to pay. Once the court has that notice, it can adjust the payment schedule on its own or on a motion from you, the government, or the victim.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3664 – Procedure for Issuance and Enforcement of Order of Restitution
Note the word “schedule.” A judge can lower your monthly payment, stretch out the repayment period, or pause payments for a stretch. What a judge cannot do is reduce the total amount you owe.5United States District Court Eastern District of Michigan. Order Granting Motion to Modify Restitution Order Expect to hand over detailed financial records showing you cannot keep up at the current level: pay stubs, medical bills, proof of job loss, dependents’ expenses, whatever supports the request.
Courts respond much better to defendants who come forward before missing payments than to those who go quiet and get flagged by a probation officer. The distinction judges draw is between can’t pay and won’t pay. Someone who has been making consistent good-faith payments, even small ones, and then hits an illness or a layoff is in a very different position from someone who simply never engaged with the order. A record of effort is worth a great deal at the modification stage and later if a violation is alleged.
Interest Keeps the Balance Growing
Federal restitution over $2,500 starts accruing interest if it is not paid in full within the first 15 days after sentencing. The interest compounds daily at a rate tied to the one-year Treasury yield from the week before the interest period began.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3612 – Post Judgment Interest Rates For a large balance, minimum payments may not even keep up with what the interest adds each year.
Many states apply their own interest to unpaid criminal restitution, commonly in the 6 to 10 percent range annually, and some add administrative processing fees. The exact numbers depend on where you were sentenced. Your sentencing order or your probation officer can tell you what applies to your case.
How Long the Obligation Lasts
Federal restitution remains enforceable for the later of 20 years from the date of the judgment or 20 years after your release from prison.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3613 – Civil Remedies for Satisfaction of an Unpaid Fine If you serve 10 years and then are released, the clock does not start until the release date, so the total exposure window can run 30 years from the original sentence.
Restitution also does not vanish at death. If a balance remains when the defendant dies, the estate is responsible, and the government’s lien continues on the property until the estate receives a formal written release.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3613 – Civil Remedies for Satisfaction of an Unpaid Fine That means an unpaid order can reach what your heirs would otherwise inherit.
State restitution rules differ on duration and enforcement, but the core is consistent across jurisdictions: the debt does not simply expire because time has passed.
Why Bankruptcy Won’t Erase It
Criminal restitution cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Code specifically exempts any payment under a federal criminal restitution order from discharge, and that applies to both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge The Supreme Court reached a similar result in Kelly v. Robinson, holding that restitution imposed as part of a criminal sentence survives bankruptcy even where the payment ultimately goes to the victim rather than to the government.
Filing bankruptcy will not even pause collection. The automatic stay, which normally freezes creditor actions the moment a bankruptcy case is filed, contains an explicit exception for criminal proceedings. Wage garnishment, tax intercepts, and lien enforcement tied to restitution can continue right through the bankruptcy case.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay Bankruptcy may help you clear other debts and free up income to put toward the restitution balance, but it is not a way out of the restitution itself.
The Practical Bottom Line
Pay what you can, on time, and document it. If your circumstances change, tell the court in writing and ask for a modified schedule before you miss payments. If you are being asked to pay an amount you believe is wrong, raise it with counsel quickly: the number set at sentencing is very hard to change later, while the schedule around it is not. Silence is the worst option. It converts a manageable civil-style debt into a probation violation, a lien on your home, and an interest balance that keeps climbing for as long as two decades.