Court fees Increased

Traffic Citations to Increase More as
Commission Looks to Fund Courthouse Facilities.

The new fees will fund the court system throughout the state as mandated by voters, who approved Revision 7 to Article V of the state constitution through referendum in 1998.

Under Revision 7, the state is expected to shoulder a greater share of the burden for funding the courts, but clerks of courts offices must become self-supporting, funding the services they provide with elevated fees as determined by the legislature.

Under the new law of funding, those who use the court system will bear the system's costs, removing that burden from taxpayers.

But as a result, everything from receiving a marriage license to paying a traffic fine has become more expensive - sometimes significantly so.

Couples, for example, used to pay $88.50 for a marriage license. That cost is now $93.50, unless couples attend a premarital course offered by a certified provider on file with the courthouse. Doing so reduces the cost to $61.

The cost of filing for divorce, by contrast, has grown greatly. Before now, the cost of a divorce filing was set at $125. The new cost, including the $10.50 judgement fee, is $363.
County Clerk Ray Norman agreed that some of the new fees are indeed steep, saying he was "blown out of the water" when some of the costs were revealed.
Another common area where costs have climbed is in the area of small claims filings. The most that was paid in the past to file such a case was $77.50 - and that included cases where the claim being filed was up to $15,000.

Today the cost of filing a small claims suit where the claim is less than $100 will cost $55. The cost increases as the claim being sought increases, so filing a case where the value of the claim exceeds $2,500 will now cost $255.

Traffic fines have increased as well and stand to increase more when the county commission considers a $15 surcharge to certain citations, which would be funneled into a fund for courthouse facilities.

A $3 surcharge was previously added to fund driver's education, so the following cost increases reflect the addition of both surcharges.

Nonmoving violations have increased from $63 to $71.50, while moving violations have increased from $93 to $115.50.

The cost of speeding six to nine mph over the limit was $58 and will now be $80.50; 10-14 mph over the limit was $133 and will now be $155.50; 15-19 mph over the limit was $158 and will now be $180.50; and 20-29 mph over the limit was $183 and will now be $205.50.

Appealing a case from the county court to the circuit court level will now cost $251, up from $125; and appealing a case from the circuit court level to the Department of Community Affairs or the Florida Supreme Court will cost $350, up from $250.

A full schedule of fees can be viewed at the county's Web site, www.bradford-co-fla.org.

Norman projects no great increase in his budget from this year to next. This year the clerk's budget was set at $877,255. If the fees generated by his office fail to meet that amount next year, Norman said the state must make up the shortfall. If revenue generated exceeds that budget, then that additional revenue will go to the state.

The new schedule will be approved by ordinance later this month, but will be effective retroactively to July 1. The commission will consider the ordinance enacting the $15 surcharge to certain traffic citations on Monday, Aug. 2.

Court Filing Fees Go Up July 1

By Mike Hoyem
Fort Myers News Press
April 28, 2004

[Florida] Planning to sue somebody or get a divorce?

If so, you might want to head to the courthouse soon because it will cost more money — considerably more — when July 1 rolls around.

Deputy Clerk Elizabeth Coleman, right, helps a customer file for divorce recently at the Lee County Clerk of Courts office in the Lee County Justice Center in downtown Fort Myers. Most court clerk-related fees to be raised on July 1. Terry Allen Williams /News-Press.com

That’s because a new fee schedule is set to go into effect that will jack up what it costs to file for divorce from $157 to $322. The cost of filing a lawsuit in circuit court is expected to rise from $89.50 to $251.

And to file a case in small-claims court you’ll have to dole out $251 instead of $59.50 if you sue someone to recover $5,000.

The fees are escalating because of a constitutional revision approved by Florida voters in 1998. Revision 7 — spearheaded by Florida’s counties — requires the state to foot more of the bill for the state court system.

Counties still must pay the cost of some items, such as courthouse facilities, security and communications.

But the state will pick up much more of the load after July 1, and it’s shifting some of the burden to people who use the courts.

The fees could change between now and July 1 with some “tweaking” by state officials, Lee County Clerk of Court Charlie Green said. But Green expects many fees to go up dramatically.

“Nobody is happy when you raise filing fees,” Green said. “But when you look at the cost of filing fees across the country and you look at the rate of inflation, we have been fortunate that in Lee County our fees have not gone up.

“It’s going to change how we do business. But to the average person using the courthouse, unless you’re filing a lawsuit it’s transparent.”

Cindy Dougher, 47, was at the Lee County Justice Center on Friday filing for divorce.

“I guess that’s the only way they can meet the public’s needs is by increasing it,” the Fort Myers resident said. “Obviously, you never like an increase. I guess it’s just the price of progress.

“Personally, I think the fee for filing for divorce shouldn’t even be,” Dougher added. “I think people should be able to file without paying a fee.”

Few things are free in a state court system that costs about $1 billion per year to run.

Attorney Joseph North of Fort Myers said the new fees won’t affect the clients he represents in personal injury cases because he doesn’t ask those clients to pay fees up front.

North said people who can’t afford to hire a lawyer are the ones who will be most affected.

In some cases, the higher filing fees could deter people from suing to recover relatively small amounts of money, he said.

Attorney Luis E. Insignares of Fort Myers specializes in divorce and civil actions.

“It’s a reflection of government’s need to maintain services, but in order to do that they’re going to have to raise fees,” Insignares said. “The people who really need services are the ones who are going to be impacted by this. It’s already expensive to do these kinds of things.”

The courts can waive filing the fees for the indigent. But indigent people typically don’t file many lawsuits.

And according to Green, he’s been given the authority to start his own collection agency or hire an agency to do collections and efforts will be made to collect overdue money from the indigent, too.

Rick Johns, 45, of Fort Myers was filing a county court suit Friday against a man he says cheated him on a truck.

Johns was relieved to learn he was paying $78.50 to file a suit that will cost $251 to file in July.

“It’s outrageous,” Johns said. “I remember when I got a divorce and it cost $151. Me and my ex-wife paid 75 bucks each and it was done with. I think it’s a poor way of getting money. Let them get it from the tourists.”

Florida Bar President Miles A. McGrane III said he has no doubt people will continue to sue each other and get divorced. But for some people, he said, “It’s going to be tight.”

“It’s going to be difficult for people,” McGrane said. “But with the amendment to the constitution, the Legislature had to come in and makes some changes.”

Lawmakers Pass Higher Fees to Pay for Justice System

By Bill Kaczor AP
The Miami Herald
April 28, 2004

Getting married would be a bit cheaper but court fees for divorces, traffic tickets, recording documents and criminal convictions would go up under a bill that overwhelmingly won Senate passage Wednesday.

The House was expected to act quickly on the wide-ranging judicial system legislation (CS SB 2962), the result of a compromise between the two chambers, and send it to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Sponsors said it could increase net annual revenue for the judicial system by up to $229.4 million - $136.5 million for counties and $92.9 million for the state - if all new funding options are used. Some of those decisions will be left to local officials.

One of the most contentious aspects is that the bill would transfer the $90 million annual cost of local juvenile detention facilities from the state to Florida's 67 counties.

"You will be hearing we took away or we swept away all the counties' money. We did not," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua. "We swept $90 million and then we offset that by giving them the ability to raise those new revenue dollars."

New funding sources include a $65 court cost on criminal convictions and local option surcharges on traffic tickets of up to $15. They would provide money for juvenile assessment centers and other local programs, including teen courts, delinquency prevention, law libraries, legal aid and sheriff's criminal justice training.

Other provisions in the bill would do the following:

•• Reduce marriage license fees by $5 to $25, but raise the divorce fee by $37 to $55 for a net revenue gain of $2.5 million for domestic violence centers.

•• Assess $101 in court costs on defendants convicted of serious offenses against minors, to fund children's advocacy centers.

•• Require a $100 fee for lawyers licensed in other jurisdictions who are allowed to appear in Florida courts for specific cases.

•• Impose a $4 per page document recording service charge, which would raise $104 million for court system technology needs.

•• Require cities to reimburse state attorneys and public defenders up to $50 per hour for handling local ordinance violations, and pay 10 percent of ordinance revenues - about $7.5 million statewide - for using the state court system to enforce their laws.

•• Reduce the filing fee counties and cities pay for enforcing ordinances from $200 to $10, plus $40 in court costs to be paid by the losing party in contested cases.

•• Permit the state to withhold revenue sharing from counties that fall short in paying their shares of the court system.

•• Allow court clerks to charge a $5 monthly or $25 one-time service fee on deferred court-

ordered payments other than restitution.

•• Create a technology board to recommend improvements in court system data information systems.

Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, cast the only dissenting vote in the Senate.