The bill would consolidate various civil filing fees, repeal various court fees and costs, and make conforming changes across several codes.
The bill would amend the Local Government Code to create a new $137 filing fee that would be charged on civil, probate, guardianship, or mental health cases in district courts, statutory county courts, statutory probate courts, and county courts. The bill would require 59.854 percent of the civil fees to be allocated to the Judicial Fund 573 for court-related purposes for the support of the judiciary; 14.5985 percent to be allocated to the basic civil legal services account in Judicial Fund 573; 21.8978 percent to be allocated to General Revenue-Dedicated Account 5157 – Statewide Electronic Filing System (GR-D Account 5157); and 3.6497 percent to be allocated to General Revenue-Dedicated Account 540 – Judicial and Court Personnel Training (GR-D Account 540).
The bill would create a $45 fee which would be imposed on any action other than an original action subject to the $137 fee, including an appeal and any counterclaim, cross-action, intervention, contempt action, adverse probate action, interpleader, motion for new trial, or third-party action. The bill would require 22.2222 percent of the fee to be allocated to the basic civil legal services account in Judicial Fund 573, 66.6667 percent to be allocated to GR-D Account 5157 and 11.1111 percent to be allocated to GR-D Account 540.
The bill would create a $21 fee on any justice court filing of any civil case and on any action other than an original action for the civil case, including an appeal and any counterclaim, cross-action, intervention, contempt action, adverse probate action, interpleader, motion for new trial, or third-party action. The bill would require 28.5714 percent of the fee to be allocated to the basic civil legal services account in Judicial Fund 573; 47.6191 percent to be allocated to GR-D Account 5157; and 23.8095 percent to be allocated to GR-D Account 540.
The bill would amend the Local Government Code to establish a new $213 local consolidated civil filing fee that would be charged on any civil case except a probate, guardianship, or mental health case in the district courts, statutory county courts, and county courts and a new fee of $35 on any action other than an original action subject to the $213 fee, including an appeal and any counterclaim, cross-action, intervention, contempt action, interpleader, motion for new trial, or third-party action.
The bill would establish a new $223 local civil filing fee that would be charged on any probate, guardianship, or mental health case in a statutory county court, statutory probate court, or county court. The bill would also establish a $75 fee on filing any action other than an original action for a case subject to the $223 filing fee (including an adverse probate action, contest, or suit in a probate court, other than the filing of a claim against an estate) in which the movant or applicant filing the intervention pleading seeks any affirmative relief.
The bill would also establish a local consolidated filing fee of $33 on any civil case in a justice court and on any action other than an original action for a civil case, including an appeal and any counterclaim, cross-action, intervention, contempt action, interpleader, motion for new trial, or third-party action.
The bill would establish an appellate judicial system fund for each court of appeals. Under the bill's provisions the appellate judicial system would be funded by a portion of the $213 and $223 local filing fees.
The bill would modify the fee for several services performed by clerks to establish parity between the services performed by district clerks and county clerks, including: the fee for issuing a subpoena by a county clerk is increased from $4 to $8; the fee for issuing an abstract of judgment by a county clerk is increased from $5 to $8; the fee for issuing a citation, writ of execution or order of sale, writ of injunction, garnishment, attachment, sequestration, and any other writ or process issued by a county clerk is increased from $5 to $8; the fee for issuing another document after judgment not listed by a county clerk is increased from $4 to $8; the fee for searching for files or records without a cause number being provided by a county clerk is set at $5; the fee for approval of bonds by a district or county clerk is increased from $4 (district clerk) and $3 (county clerk) to $5; the fee for certified copy by a district clerk is increased from not to exceed $1 to $5; the fee for a paper copy of filed document by a district or county clerk is set at $1 per page; the fee for an electronic copy of a document that is converted to electronic format by a district or county clerk is set at $1 per page; the fee for an electronic copy of a document that was not converted from a paper format by a district or county clerk is set at $0.10 per page with a minimum of $1; and the fee for the preparation of the appellate record by a district or county clerk is set at $1 per page.
The bill would remove the $45 civil fee imposed on family law cases and the $50 civil fee imposed on cases other than family law cases. The bill would require certain fees collected by the clerk of a court of appeals in a civil case to be deposited to Judicial Fund 573.
The bill would repeal the juvenile probation diversion fee under Sec. 54.0411 and the juvenile DNA testing fee under Sec. 54.0462 of the Family Code and Sec. 54.06 of the Family Code relating to costs imposed by a juvenile court in certain cases where a child has been committed to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD).
The bill would repeal the state contribution for judicial salaries required under Sec. 25.00211, civil fees imposed in statutory county courts under Sec. 51.702 , civil fees imposed in county courts under Sec. 51.703, additional fees imposed in statutory probate courts under Sec. 51.704, the electronic filing fee imposed under Sec. 51.851(c), the judicial and court personnel training fee imposed under Sec. 51.971 and the fee for orders of nondisclosure under Sec. 411.077 of the Government Code.
The bill would repeal additional filing fees in district courts imposed under Sec. 133.152, additional filing fees in courts other than district courts imposed under Sec. 133.153 and additional filing fee for support of the judiciary imposed under Sec. 133.154 of the Local Government Code.
The bill would take effect January 1, 2022.