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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ind. Courts - Court charges for miscellaneous services

The Supreme Court has posted an Order headed "In the Matter of Fees Charged by the Clerk of Courts for Miscellaneous Services." You may access it here. Here are some items that caught my eye:

Some ILB observations: These fees are much higher than those charged by the executive branch of government.

It is interesting that the size of the document attached to an email, or the size of a document copied onto a CD, occasions a difference in charges.

In Advisory Opinion 03-FC-133 dated Dec. 29, 2003, the Indiana Public Access Counselor's response to "Alleged Denial of Access to Public Records by the Lake County Superior Court," included:

Indiana Code 5-14-3-8 governs fees generally, and permits state agencies and other public agencies to charge a copy fee for production of documents. A public agency may collect a copy fee in advance of production (IC 5-14-3-8(e)), and is permitted to collect any fee specified by statute or ordered by a court (IC 5-14-3-8(f)). For court records, Indiana Code 33-19-6-1 provides that the clerk of the courts shall charge a copy fee of one dollar ($1.00) per page.
IC 5-14-3-8(c), part of the Public Records Act, provides:
(c) The Indiana department of administration shall establish a uniform copying fee for the copying of one (1) page of a standard-sized document by state agencies. The fee may not exceed the average cost of copying records by state agencies or ten cents ($0.10) per page, whichever is greater. A state agency may not collect more than the uniform copying fee for providing a copy of a public record. However, a state agency shall establish and collect a reasonable fee for copying nonstandard-sized documents.
IC 33-19-6-1, recodified as IC 33-37-5-1, provides in part:
(b) Except as provided in subsection (c), the clerk shall collect a fee of one dollar ($1) per legal size or letter size page, including a page only partially covered with writing.

(c) The legislative body of a county may adopt by ordinance a schedule of document fees to be collected by a clerk under this section. If an ordinance has been adopted, the clerk shall collect document fees according to the schedule. However, the document fee collected by the clerk under this subsection may not exceed one dollar ($1) per legal size or letter size page, including a page only partially covered with writing.

Another item that caught my attention was this:
$150.00 -- CD containing Roll of Attorneys database
Seeing that item sent me searching for this June 12, 2008 ILB entry about the State of Illinois refusing to turn over the names on its Roll of Attorneys to a private online lawyer-rating company.
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[More] I just pulled up this directly on-point PAC opinion from Oct. 12, 2001, 01-FC-63 "Alleged Violation of the Access to Public Records Act Concerning Copying Fees by the Clerk of the Supreme and Appellate Courts." I haven't had a chance to see if it is all still current, but the conclusion from 2001 is that, in the absence of a court-ordered copying fee (which this new Order would seem to be), the changes should be limited to their actual cost:

It is my opinion that, in the absence of a statutory or court ordered copying fee for the Manual you requested, the Clerk of the Supreme and Appellate Courts may charge only the actual cost of copying as authorized under Indiana Code section 5-14-3-8(d). The burden lies with the Clerk's Office to show that the one dollar ($1.00) per page copying fee is the actual cost, or to charge you the amount that does constitute actual cost under the APRA. Further, absent any other statutory authority or an order from a court providing you with indigent status with respect to the public records requested, the Clerk's Office is not obligated to waive this copying fee.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 29, 2010 11:54 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts