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The Judicial Council
of Louisiana |
GENERAL
GUIDELINES FOR THE STANDING COMMITTEE TO EVALUATE
REQUESTS FOR COURT COSTS AND FEES
DECEMBER 31, 2004
GENERAL
GUIDELINES
1.
Purpose and Scope. The following Guidelines
are hereby promulgated by the Judicial Council to guide the
process of submitting and evaluating requests for new court
costs and fees or increases in existing court costs and fees
pursuant to R.S. 13:61 (Act 202 of the 2003 Regular Legislative
Session).
2.
Definitions. For the purpose and scope
of these Guidelines, the following terms shall have the following
meanings:
(a)
"Court cost" means a specific charge or cost, or
a range of specific charges or costs, or a specific percentage
of an amount of costs, or a limit of an amount of cost that
is used to defray the operational costs of courts and the
court-related operational costs of law enforcement, clerks
of court, district attorneys, the indigent defense system,
state and local probation and parole functions, and other
court-related functions, and that has been authorized by state
law and levied by a court to be collected from a person convicted
of, or pleading guilty to, or forfeiting a bond with respect
to, certain specified crimes or pre-delinquent and delinquent
acts.
(b) "Court-related
operational costs" mean those operational costs that
are in direct support of the pre-adjudicative, adjudicative,
and post-adjudicative functions of a court, including but
not limited to: training; data sharing; law enforcement service
of process; court reporting; pro se assistance; certain treatment
programs sponsored or closely affiliated with the courts;
bailiff services; short-term detention; probation legal representation;
prosecution; legal research; court-related technologies; informal
adjudicative programs such as diversion, alternative dispute
resolution, restorative justice, pre-trial and such other
programs that are either sponsored by or closely affiliated
with the courts.
(c) "Courts"
mean the district courts, the juvenile and family courts,
the city, parish, municipal, and traffic courts, the justices
of the peace, and the mayor's courts.
(d) "Fee"
means a charge or cost or a range of specific charges or costs,
or a specific percentage of an amount of costs, or a limit
of an amount of cost that is used to defray the operational
costs of the courts or the court-related operational costs
of the clerks of court or other court-related functions, and
that has been authorized by state law to be collected from
a person either filing a document in any civil or criminal
proceeding with the clerk of court, appearing in a civil matter
before a court, failing to fulfill a condition of release,
or meeting a condition of probation or other court order.
(e) "The
Standing Committee to Evaluate Requests for Court Costs and
Fees, hereinafter referred to as the "Court Cost Committee",
or the "Committee" means that information-gathering
and advisory arm of the Judicial Council created to develop
and apply guidelines for evaluating requests for new court
costs and fees or increases in existing court costs and fees
prior to the submission of such requests to the legislature,
and to report the Committee's findings and recommendations
to the Judicial Council.
3.
Included Costs and Charges. For the
purposes of these Guidelines, the costs and charges to be
reviewed and evaluated by the Judicial Council include court
costs and fees as herein defined. These court costs and fees
also include any cost or charge for which state legislation
is being sought to modify an existing cost or charge currently
set exclusively by court rule or local ordinance, and any
cost or charge currently authorized by state law as to specific
amount, range of amount, or a percentage of an amount, or
limit of amount for which new legislation is being sought
to eliminate any specificity as to amount and thus to allow
the court or other entity to set the rates or amounts.
4.
Excluded
Costs and Charges. For the purposes of these Guidelines,
the terms "court cost" and "fee" do not include:
· Fines or other monetary criminal or civil
penalties that are authorized by law to be imposed on offenders
upon their admission of guilt or upon conviction;
· Court proceeding costs not specified by state law
as to amount, range of amount, percentage of amount, or limits
of amount but left to a judge to determine and set as a means
of defraying in whole or in part the cost of a specific litigation;
· Non-judicial costs and fees not having any direct
relationship with a court proceeding that are authorized by
law to be assessed and collected by an executive department
or agency of government, e.g. fees and costs assessed and
collected by health, environmental, general governmental,
correctional, and other agencies of the executive branch;
· Asset sales or property forfeitures;
· Costs or charges paid by one governmental body to
another whether involving courts or not;
· Court reporter fees and costs that are not specified
by law or court rule as to amount, range of amount, or limit
of amount but are determined and assessed by a court as part
of the court cost of a specific proceeding.
· Fees and court costs enacted by local ordinance
and not authorized by state law, except in the case of those
fees and court costs enacted by ordinance for which state
legislation is being sought to set an amount, or a
range of amount, or a percentage of an amount, or a limit
of an amount.
· Other Court-related Fees, Costs, and Charges
that are not specified by state law as to amount, range of
amount, percentage of amount, or limit of amount, except in
the case of those court-related and court-specified fees,
costs, and charges for which new state legislation is being
sought to set an amount, or a range of amount, or a percentage
of an amount, or a limit of an amount.
5.
Eligible Requests. The Judicial Council
of the Supreme Court shall consider any request for an included
new court cost or fee or an increase in an existing court
cost or fee provided the request is submitted on the application
form and in the manner required by the Council and signed
by the chief officer of the requesting entity and provided
the requesting entity includes with the duly signed form the
following financial information:
(1)
its previous year's annual financial statement, including
balance sheets and income statements;
(2)
its most recently audited financial statement; (3) its
current annual budget; and (4) a separate budget
indicating the anticipated revenues and types of expected
expenditures resulting from the enactment of your proposal
for new or increased fees or court costs. If the requesting
organization is submitting the request on behalf of a recipient
organization, please submit the above-specified financial
information on the recipient organization as well. Please
note that the Committee may request additional financial information,
only if it deems such information to be appropriate and necessary
for the Committee's effective review and analysis of the proposal.
6.
Deadline for Submission of Requests.
The deadline for the receipt of requests for Fiscal Year 2003-2004
shall be 5:00 p.m. on January 30, 2004. The deadline for the
first year of the program of review and evaluation is necessary
to allow the Judicial Council and its Court Cost Committee
and staff, as indicated below, sufficient lead-time to develop
and promulgate guidelines and to properly review and evaluate
each request. In every year after Fiscal Year 2003-2004, the
deadline for the receipt of requests shall be 5:00 p.m. on
the last Friday of that month falling approximately 150 days
before the deadline for the pre-filing of bills in the year
in which the legislature shall consider the request.
7.
Assignment of Request to Committee. Upon
receipt of a proper request, the Council shall forward the
request to the Court-Cost Committee which shall apply the
following analyses:
(a) Analysis of the Purpose of the Court Cost or Fee.
On the basis of the information supplied in the request
forms and from such other information that may be gathered,
the Court Cost Committee shall analyze whether the proposed
court cost or fee is for an appropriate purpose. Among the
appropriate purposes for which court costs or fees may be
requested are:
· to support
a court or the court system or help defray the court-related
operational costs of other agencies.
· to support
an activity in which there is a reasonable relationship between
the fee or court cost imposed and the costs of the administration
of justice.
(b) Analysis of the Intended Recipient's Finances.
On the basis of the financial information submitted
by the requesting entity, the Committee shall analyze the
information to determine whether the requesting organization
or the recipient organization has the financial means to fund
the proposed purpose without the need for a new court cost
or fee or an increase in an existing court cost or fee.
(c) Analysis of the Probable Yield of the Court Cost
or Fee. On the basis of information gathered
from the recipients of existing court costs and fees in Louisiana,
the Committee shall analyze and calculate the probable yield
of the proposed court cost or fee.
(d) Analysis of the Incidence of
the Court Cost or Fee. On the basis of information
gathered from the requesting entity, the recipients of existing
court costs or fees in Louisiana, and data from other states,
the Committee, with assistance from its staff, shall analyze
and determine the types of persons who are likely to bear
the burden of paying the new court cost or fee or the increase
in the existing court cost and fee and whether the additional
burden from the court cost and fee, when added to the burden
of existing court cost and fees, would affect in any significant
way access to justice or would be unfair to a class of court
users.
(e) Cost Benefit Analysis. On the basis of
information submitted by each requesting organization, the
Committee shall evaluate the costs and benefits of the proposed
court cost or fee.
8. Committee
Reporting. Upon completion of the analyses
described above, the Committee shall vote favorably or unfavorably
on each request. The Committee shall then present its findings
and recommendations, and any withdrawn requests, at the next
meeting of the Judicial Council in which the Council is expected
to receive and consider the Committee's recommendations. A
summary of the report of the Committee shall be provided in
the minutes of each meeting of the Council. In the event that
a meeting of the Judicial Council is cancelled due to the
withdrawal of a request for a new court cost or fee, the Committee
shall provide a report on the withdrawal at the next meeting
of the Council.
9.
Voting
by Ballot. Members of the Judicial Council may vote
on the ballot sheets provided at each meeting for or against
a request for a new court cost or fee, or may vote to abstain
or to be recused from voting. The results of such balloting
shall be read by the secretary and reported as favorably or
unfavorably considered. The individual vote of each member,
for or against or to abstain or to be recused, shall be recorded
in the minutes of the Judicial Council.
10.
Recusal. Any
member of the Committee to Review and Comment on New Court
Costs and Fees or any member of the Judicial Council who is
a member of the intended recipient for which a new court cost
or fee has been requested or who may have a personal, family,
or financial interest in the new court cost or fee, shall
recuse him-or-herself from voting on the request, and shall
note for the record the recusal and the factual basis therefor.
11.
Advocacy and Lobbying.
An advocate for or against a new court cost or fee
is encouraged to make his position known to each member of
the Committee and the Council in writing. However, the advocate
shall not contact any Committee or Council member in person
or by phone. Any member of the Committee or the Council who
is so contacted shall disclose the contact at all meetings
in which the action shall be considered and such disclosure
shall be reported in the minutes of the Judicial Council.
12.
Quorum. A
quorum of a majority of members is necessary to vote on all
official actions of the Council.
13.
Emergency Situations.
In emergency situations or in other circumstances
deemed necessary, the Chair of the Council may, in his discretion,
authorize the use of mail-in or electronically transmitted
ballots to allow or facilitate voting on matters before the
Council.
14.
Chronology of Key
Events in FY 2004-2005 Process. In FY 2004-2005,
the timetable of the key events of the process of review and
comment on new court costs and user fees shall be:
November
1, 2004 Briefing of
Judicial Council on 2005 Process.
November
15, 2004 Deadline for Submission
of Court Costs Proposals.
December
2004
Committee Review of Proposals.
January
2005
Committee Hearing on Proposals and Completion of Review
by Committee.
February
2005
Judicial Council Meeting.
March
2005
Submission of Results to Legislature.
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