Court budget details emerge: a variety of court filing fees go up June 1.

The bill to look at is SB 1718.

That's the implementing bill for the court-related sections of Florida's 2009-10 budget. It's the nitty-gritty of where the money will come from along with some detailed directions of how it will be spent.

For example, the bill allows that when county court judges sit as circuit judges, they may again be paid a circuit judge salary "to the extent that funds are specifically appropriated by law for such purposes."

Another section directs the First District Court of Appeal, working in cooperation with the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims, to create a pilot project for the electronic filing of appeals in workers' compensation cases.

But for the courts, the impact of the bill is its specifications for how the coffers of the new court trust fund will be filled, primarily by raising a variety of court filing fees. Those increases are effective as of June 1.

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Lisa Goodner, state courts administrator, said next year's budget is a mixed blessing. On the plus side, the budget and SB 1718 provide more than $240 million (that's up from initial projections of $222 million) in funding for the trust fund. The Supreme Court, the Bar, and other court officials hope the trust fund will eventually provide a more stable source of funding for the courts, insulating them from the steep budget cuts in the past couple of years that came even as court workloads increased.

But that accomplishment came in a budget that also cut 2 percent from the salaries of state employees making more than $45,000 a year, except those in the university system. Other than the pay cut, the budget for the court system was not reduced.

"We're going to be hard pressed to say we had a good session with a pay cut--that's just the biggest downer in the world," Goodner said. "Our branch will be disproportionately affected by that because all the judges will be affected."

And getting about half of the court system's budget through trust funds, while a victory, will bring its own challenges, she said. Rather than getting quarterly disbursements from the state, the court system will now have to directly manage much of its own fiscal resources, including trust fund income that is based on educated guesses as on how much will be coming in.

"The first few months will be very dicey. We've got to build cash flow and we've got a $15 million payroll to meet every month," Goodner said. But she added, the "trust funding is based on conservative estimates."

A good chunk of the trust fund comes from a new sliding fee scale for foreclosure cases. While foreclosures have skyrocketed in the past couple years, rising around 400 percent statewide, they are projected to level and then rapidly decline as the state works its way though the current recession.

"We will have to come back and look at that [foreclosure fees] for 2011-12. It will bottom out at a lot less than that number," Goodner said.

Legislators, she added, understood that when they set up the new fees and funneled the money to the court trust fund. "They were pulling that budget (together) with every penny they could find," she said.

Here's what SB 1718 means for court funding:

Effective June 1, all probate fees listed in F.S. [section]28.2401 are increased by $115, with the money going to the court trust fund. Those fees now range between $230 and $395. The change is expected to raise $7.1 million for the trust fund.

Also effective June 1, all civil circuit court filing fees in F.S. [section]28.241, except in family law cases, are raised by $100, with the extra money going to the trust fund. That is expected to raise $43.6 million. In addition, $80 of the filing fee which now goes to court clerks is being reallocated to the court trust fund, which raises another $44.8 million. (The bill specifically mentions Florida Statute chapters that cover family law issues and specifies those fees remain at $295.)

The sliding fee on foreclosures, effective June 1, raises the most for the trust fund--a projected $145.9 million. It sets a fee of $395 for foreclosures valued up to $50,000, with $180 going to the court trust fund. For foreclosures valued at more than $50,000 but less than $250,000, the fee is $900, with $685 going to the court trust fund. For foreclosures valued at $250,000 or more, the fee is $1,900, with $1,685 going to the trust fund. The law specifies that the value of the case includes the unpaid principal, interest, and property taxes and insurance payments advanced by the lender. That is created in a new section in F.S. [section]28.241

For F.S. [section]34.041, the bill reduces the filing fee for tenant evictions from $265 to $180, and reduces the filing fee to $125 for claims under $1,000 filed simultaneously with an action for replevin of property. That is projected to cost the trust fund around $700,000.

Overall, the bill is expected to raise around $240.7 million for the courts, or over half its budget.

Goodner said making the fee changes effective June 1 gives time for the revenues to start flowing into the court trust fund, so monies are available when the 2009-10 fiscal year begins on July 1.

Aside from the fee changes, an amendment in the bill to F.S. [section]57.081 specifies that indigents are exempt from paying filing fees in civil cases. SB 1718 also eliminated F.S. [section]57.082, which requires clerks to set up a payment schedule for indigents unable to pay civil filing fees.

Gary Blankenship

Senior Editor