Court collections are rising rapidly; it was estimated in 1988 that the annual amount of fines and other monetary penalties collected by local, State, and Federal courts exceeded $2 billion. The revenue agent role includes bill collecting as well as accounting, auditing, and reporting. Collection activities impact on the courts' staffing decisions; some courts have increased their staff to perform collection activities, thereby adding to their bureaucratization. Ineffective collection practices can have negative consequences for local revenues as well as for the courts themselves in terms of legislative reaction. Courts need to perform administrative tasks involved in recording the amounts collected and distributed, auditing records, and reporting financial data, activities which all require substantial staff time. The revenue agent role has an impact on proposals for State funding of court systems as well as the courts' adjudicatory role. The author also discusses the impact of the courts' revenue agent role on State legislatures and on judicial neutrality. 52 notes