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: the 13th juror

The courts are open -- but only if you can afford it

It's only one of the bad ideas that came out of this year's Legislature, but this one is right in the wheelhouse of a poverty lawyer.

A bill that would make it much harder for poor people to assert their rights in court has passed the Legislature and is awaiting the governor's signature.

It would require anyone who files a counter-claim or a third-party complaint to pay a filing fee of up to $295! (Until now, there has been no charge for responding to a lawsuit.)

So your landlord pays $85 to file an eviction complaint and if you want to respond that the lanlord didn't keep the place properly maintained (or did other things wrong), you would have to pay $295 to raise a counter-claim.*

It's somewhat difficult to track the amendments to a bill, but it seems that these fees were added at the very end of session.

Was the Legislature just looking for money? The counter-claim fees go to the state's general revenue fund; they won't even be used to fund the court system.

And, as usual, the bill leaves unanswered questions. A colleague who has worked on indigency issues for years says it is not yet clear if the payment plan process -- which allows poor people to pay fees for initiating a new lawsuit in monthly payments -- will work for the counterclaim fee.

Florida's Constitution guarantees: "The courts shall be open to every person for redress of any injury, and justice shall be administered without sale, denial or delay."

But this bill seems to say that the courts are open if you can afford it.
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* Sometimes you have to file a counter-claim or lose it forever. (That's called a compulsory counter-claim.)

Full post as published by the 13th juror on May 18, 2008 (boomark / email).