Butte County

The Proposed Legislation which follows this introduction and which is set forth in the pages that follow would eliminate the sole discount in court filing fees that was created for a single class of plaintiffs when they institute actions that are within the monetary jurisdiction of the small claims court, in superior court. The rationale for the discount, which was created for "bill collectors" and for other assignees of claims is that they are "frequent filers" that make efficient use of the courts ‐ since a substantial number of their filings are summarily concluded. This was stated as such in the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Report on Sen. Bill 1609 (1989-1990 Reg. Sess.) as amended January 4, 1990, on page 4. Over the last 23 years (1990-2013) the discount ‐ of $44 ‐ has amounted to approximately $73.6 million in lost filing fee revenue, $36.8 million of which would have been earmarked for public county law libraries that serve all Californians had full fees been paid. One rationale for eliminating the "bill collectors' exception" is that no public policy is advanced by the granting of a discount to one class of plaintiffs carte blanche, over others (especially where the rationale supporting the discount would have equal application to another class of plaintiffs ‐ namely, property managers who manage multiples of units, in eviction cases, for which no discount was created. A second rationale for eliminating the "bill collectors' exception" is that the increased revenues that would be raised as the result are needed right-away by the People of California ‐ through their elected officials ‐ to address a financial crisis besetting the maintenance of the very public institutions that the people of California come to for redress of their grievances, and justice. The effect of the Proposed Bill will be to restore to county law libraries, and to the trial courts, approximately $1.6 million each in annual lost revenue. The Bill is written as an urgency measure to take effect this year.

TITLE

An act to amend Section 6322.1 of the Business and Professions Code harmonizing filing fees paid by all litigants in limited civil cases within the monetary jurisdiction of the small claims court, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

DIGEST

This is a library and courts funding bill aimed at stabilizing funding for California's free, public, county law libraries.

THE LEGISLATURE FINDS AND DECLARES AS FOLLOWS:

The tools required to thoroughly research legal problems are not found on the Internet. Equal access to the courts of justice and equal access to the laws and to the materials that explain the rules of evidence, the rules of procedure, and the relationship of laws to other law requires access to a law library. By longstanding tradition, each county in California has a public law library fund that is administered locally for the judiciary, for state and county officials, for members of the State Bar, and for the residents of the county. County law libraries in California represent the primary legal resource for the average citizen conducting research or preparing a case in propria persona; often, they serve as the only library available to sole practitioners and small law firms. While most public agencies and most law firms operate libraries or maintain subscriptions to support legal functions, they, also, depend on the collections, the services and the expertise provided by county law libraries to supplement their in-house subscriptions. County law library reference staffs provide expert assistance in all areas of the law. And resource-sharing through networking makes available to all Californians analyses about the law and other supplemental materials that would otherwise be inaccessible. It is mandatory that California's county law libraries be maintained.

Under existing law, county law libraries are funded from amount-specific portions of first-paper court filing fees paid to initiate, or respond to, a civil, family law, or probate action in the Superior Court; in addition, existing law funds county law libraries from an amount-specific nominal portion of first paper filing fees paid for certain small claims. These amount-specific portions are listed in Business and Professions Code sections 6321 and 6322.1 and in Code of Civil Procedure section 116.230.

A provision of law that was enacted in 1990, an amendment of Business and Professions Code section 6322.1 which reduced the filing fee for third-party collectors, undermined the Legislature's objective set forth in the same statute of providing stability to the funding of county law libraries. This provision: Statutes of 1990, chapter 56, section 1, third full paragraph, cost county law libraries, in terms of net filing fee revenue, $1.610 million in FY 2012-'13; similarly, the provision cost the Administrative Office of the Courts, in terms of net-net filing fee revenue, $1.615 million in FY 2012-'13.

During the Great Recession, the number of first-paper filers, year-to-year, declined. Between 2008-'09 and 2012-'13, there was a 24.42 percent decline in civil, family law, and probate filing fees paid, statewide ‐ and a 27.87 percent decline was measured in Contra Costa County. In part, this was due to reduced filings and in part this was due to an increase in court filing fee waivers. The 24.42 percent decline in the number of paid filings, 27.87 percent in Contra Costa County, translated to a 24.42 percent and a 27.87 percent decline in revenue receipts for county law libraries and for the Contra Costa County Law Library. Further, during this period, the cost of the legal reference materials subscribed to by public county law libraries, government agencies, and the practicing bar, rose by a factor that was more-than double the percentage of the revenue decline (61 percent). As a consequence, county law libraries have been forced to cancel subscriptions and, in some areas, reduce service hours.

Some county law libraries are running out of time ‐ and may be unable to sustain their operations in their very near future. The present system of collection and distribution of filing fees is not a sustainable plan for California's law libraries and their viability.

To prevent the possible closing of various law libraries as a result of financial necessity, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. In an action or proceeding in which a claim for money damages falls within the monetary jurisdiction of the small claims court and is filed by an assignee who is prohibited from filing or maintaining a claim in small claims court pursuant to Section 116.420 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the uniform filing fee shall no longer be reduced by forty-four dollars ($44) to one hundred eighty-one dollars ($181), as was provided by prior law. Rather, the uniform fee for filing the first paper in an action or proceeding in which a claim for money damages falls within the monetary jurisdiction of the small claims court and is filed by an assignee shall be the same fee as in any other limited civil case where the amount demanded, excluding attorneys fees and costs, is ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or less.

SECTION 2. Section 6322.1, subdivision (c) of the Business and Professions Code is repealed.

SECTION 3. In enacting the foregoing provision, it is the intent of the Legislature that California continue its century old tradition of making legal materials available to all its citizens via adequately funded, staffed, and maintained county law libraries.

SECTION 4. Pursuant to Section 17579 of the Government Code, the Legislature finds that there is no mandate contained in the act which will result in costs incurred by a local agency or school district for a new program or higher level of service which require reimbursement pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution and Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.

SECTION 5. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

To prevent the possible closing of various law libraries as a result of financial necessity, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.