Kentucky

WHAS11 story says that state lawmakers say one way to plug the holes in the state budget may be to boost court fees.

Here is a link to the WHAS11 story with an on-line video to boot!

However, the court fees for cases in circuit court are around $150, and jury fees are also quite low considering the expenses of calling a jury.  So, raising court fees to cover the expenses of the justice system may not necessarily sound like a regressive move, but a somewhat surprising move nonetheless since all of us benefit from a working judicial system and not just those who are caught up in it at the time.

The story is below the fold:

Click here for the story and the video at WHAS11.

(WHAS11) - The next time you file a lawsuit or have any dealings in court, you may be paying more in court fees.

State lawmakers say one way to plug the holes in the state budget may be to boost court fees.

Republican state lawmakers who don?t want to be accused of raising taxes also don?t want to be accused of raising fees.  That?s why they?re hoping the courts will do it to help balance two state budgets.

There are nearly 200 fewer clerks working in courthouses across Kentucky than there were two years ago due to budget cuts and now there are more to come.

State lawmakers are also cutting the judicial branch budget next year.  But lawmakers have agreed to a deal to let the court system charge you more for filing lawsuits and wage garnishments, with the judiciary keeping the first five million dollars collected, the rest used by lawmakers to balance the state budget.

The proposed increase in court filing fees is 50 dollars for circuit court civil cases, meaning those filings would cost 168 dollars in Jefferson County.  District civil cases would go up 25 dollars to 80-50 dollars in Louisville and wage garnishments would jump from 4 dollars to 30. 

The Kentucky Supreme Court still has to approve those hikes, which may be the only way to pour more cash into the judiciary branch?s budget.