1-1     By:  Ellis                                            S.C.R. No. 21
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 29, 1999; February 3, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     March 17, 1999, reported favorably, as amended, by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; March 17, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6     COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1                                By:  Ellis
 1-7           Amend S.C.R. 21, on page 1, line 45, by striking "March 1,
 1-8     1999" and substituting "January 1, 2001".
 1-9                        SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
1-10           WHEREAS, Significant differences between the current fee for
1-11     filing a multiple-party civil lawsuit in a district, county, or
1-12     appellate court, a party's ability to pay, and the actual court
1-13     costs associated with such suits have raised concerns about the
1-14     appropriateness of such fees and raise the question of whether the
1-15     filing fee rate should be reassessed in light of those concerns;
1-16     and
1-17           WHEREAS, On average, filing fees pay for approximately 40
1-18     percent of the costs associated with court proceedings, records
1-19     preservation, and other clerical duties; and
1-20           WHEREAS, Regardless of whether a court hears a lawsuit that
1-21     involves one plaintiff or a multiple-party or class action lawsuit
1-22     that involves hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of plaintiffs,
1-23     the filing fee for the one plaintiff and the group of plaintiffs is
1-24     the same, despite the greater recordkeeping burden imposed on the
1-25     court by a multiple-party lawsuit, in which case the majority of
1-26     the clerical costs are borne by the court at taxpayer expense; and
1-27           WHEREAS, The County and District Clerk's Association of Texas
1-28     has recommended that courts be allowed to charge separate fees for
1-29     each party in a multiple-party lawsuit to help ease the cost burden
1-30     of maintaining individual plaintiff files, while the Texas Trial
1-31     Lawyers Association, concerned with fees becoming hardships for
1-32     individuals, favors reducing fees or setting a standard fee for
1-33     multiple-party lawsuits; and
1-34           WHEREAS, The increasing number of civil court filing fees and
1-35     attendant concerns that court costs may restrict citizens' access
1-36     to the courts or that taxpayers may be asked to bear a greater
1-37     share of the cost burden have created a situation where it has
1-38     become necessary to determine whether court costs are unreasonable
1-39     or overly burdensome and how fees may be brought in line with those
1-40     costs; now, therefore, be it
1-41           RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas
1-42     hereby direct the Office of Court Administration to report on the
1-43     costs of filing multiple-party lawsuits and the feasibility of
1-44     using sliding scales or aggregate filing fees and to submit
1-45     recommendations to the legislature no later than March 1, 1999;
1-46     and, be it further
1-47           RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official
1-48     copy of this resolution to the director of the Office of Court
1-49     Administration.
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