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Filing fees increasing

By: dmc-admin//July 20, 2009//

Filing fees increasing

By: dmc-admin//July 20, 2009//

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Attorneys seeking money judgments in personal injury cases or foreclosure actions will now have to pay an additional $9.50 in surcharges.

More than 30 different circuit court filing fees were impacted by a July 1 increase of the Justice Information Surcharge (JINFO) from $12 to $21.50.

While the majority of the revenue generated by the surcharge continues to go toward the Consolidated Court Automation Programs (CCAP) and the district attorney’s case management systems, the state budget allocates $4 of the JINFO money for “indigent legal services.”

Some members of the legal community, including Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson, expressed concern that that the expansion of the surcharge to fund non-administrative services sets a “troubling precedent.”

In an appearance before the Joint Finance Committee, which recommended the $4 allocation, Abrahamson said that the JINFO surcharge has “no connection to legal services for the indigent.”

But Attorney Thomas R. Cannon, executive director of Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, said the JINFO surcharge is a “perfectly appropriate funding vehicle” to increase court access for poor people.

The state budget also included a $3.63 million increase in state appropriations for funding of legal services for the poor. That increase is on top of the $1 million included in the last budget.

“I think part of it is spreading the cost among all taxpayers and the other part is tagging users of court system,” Cannon said. “It’s an appropriate judgment to use both sources of revenue as a way of achieving the goal of expanding access to justice.”

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that the surcharge increases will generate more than $11 million in revenue during the current biennium.

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