No. SB 1322
Filed under Healthcare.
Clerks of the Court; Requiring the clerk to retain certain funds or deposit the funds into the fine and forfeiture fund; authorizing the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation, on behalf of the clerks, to submit a request for reimbursement to reimburse the clerks for filing certain petitions, orders, appeals, and summons; authorizing the clerk to be reimbursed for certain fees and charges, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDDozens of clerk fees stop sending a cut to the state's General Revenue Fund. Filing fees for circuit civil cases, certificate charges, subpoena fees, and record-search fees now stay with the clerk of court instead of being split with the state.
The bill also stops sending half of clerks' surplus court-fee revenue to the state each year. All of that 'cumulative excess' can now fund clerk budgets, instead of just the half clerks kept before.
The state raises what it pays clerks for filing fee-exempt cases like domestic violence injunctions and Baker Act petitions, from $40 to $195 each, run through one consolidated program instead of several separate ones.
Municipalities lose a big share of certain traffic civil penalties. Their cut drops from 50.8 percent to 28.2 percent, with the difference now going into the clerk's fine and forfeiture fund instead.
AIFor circuit civil filing fees, the clerk now keeps the bulk of the fee outright instead of remitting most of it to the state's General Revenue Fund. The same remittance clauses are struck from dozens of other clerk fees, including certificate, subpoena, bond, and record-search charges.
AICurrent law sends 50 percent of clerks' 'cumulative excess' revenue over projections to the state's General Revenue Fund each year. This bill removes that transfer, so the full cumulative excess, after a required reserve, can fund clerk budgets instead.
AIDomestic violence, repeat/sexual/dating violence, stalking, and vulnerable-adult protective-order statutes each had their own procedure letting the clerk seek quarterly reimbursement at $40 per petition. This bill deletes each procedure and folds them into one statewide mechanism.
AIThe consolidated mechanism the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation now runs on clerks' behalf pays $195 per petition, order, appeal, or summons filed, nearly five times the old $40 rate, and now also covers appeals and summonses.
AIIndigency applications and review petitions, Baker Act habeas petitions and involuntary-examination orders, sexually violent predator commitment petitions and appeals, and substance-abuse commitment petitions all newly reference the reimbursement mechanism, adding categories with no prior reimbursement option.
AIFor civil penalties from violations within a municipality, the municipality's share drops from 50.8 percent to 28.2 percent. The clerk's fine and forfeiture fund's share rises from 5.6 percent to 28.2 percent, an even split where the municipality once got far more.
AIReopening a civil case can cost up to $50, but several categories are exempt. This bill removes two exemptions -- a disposition of personal property without administration, and probate cases before the personal representative is discharged -- so the fee now applies.
AISeveral smaller remittances to the state's General Revenue Fund are eliminated across traffic-infraction and misdemeanor cost statutes -- for example, part of a $60 criminal-traffic court cost now goes entirely into the clerk's local fine and forfeiture fund.