H. B. 3045

(By Delegate Staton)

[Introduced March 28, 2001; referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]






A BILL to amend and reenact section eleven, article one, chapter fifty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; relating to increasing dramatically certain fees charged by clerk of circuit court.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eleven, article one, chapter fifty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. FEES AND ALLOWANCES.

 §59-1-11. Fees to be charged by clerk of circuit court.
(a) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect for services rendered as such clerk the following fees, and such fees shall be paid in advance by the parties for whom such services are to be rendered:
(1) For instituting any civil action under the rules of civil procedure, any statutory summary proceeding, any extraordinary remedy, the docketing of civil appeals, or any other action, cause, suit or proceeding, seventy-five one hundred forty dollars: Provided, That the fee for instituting an action for divorce shall be one hundred five dollars;
(2) Beginning on and after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, for For instituting an action for divorce, separate maintenance or annulment, one hundred twenty-five thirty-five dollars; and
(3) For petitioning for the modification of an order involving child custody, child visitation, child support or spousal support, seventy-five ninety-five dollars.
(b) In addition to the foregoing fees, the following fees shall likewise be charged and collected:
(1) For preparing an abstract of judgment, five dollars;
(2) For any transcript, copy or paper made by the clerk for use in any other court or otherwise to go out of the office, for each page, fifty cents;
(3) For action on suggestion, ten dollars;
(4) For issuing an execution, ten dollars;
(5) For issuing or renewing a suggestee execution, including copies, postage, registered or certified mail fees and the fee provided by section four, article five-a, chapter thirty-eight of this code, three dollars;
(6) For vacation or modification of a suggestee execution, one dollar;
(7) For docketing and issuing an execution on a transcript of judgment from magistrate's court, three dollars;
(8) For arranging the papers in a certified question, writ of error, appeal or removal to any other court, five twenty-five dollars;
(9) For postage and express and for sending or receiving decrees, orders or records, by mail or express, three times the amount of the postage or express charges;
(10) For each subpoena, on the part of either plaintiff or defendant, to be paid by the party requesting the same, fifty cents one dollar; and
(11) For additional service (plaintiff or appellant) where any case remains on the docket longer than three years, for each additional year or part year, twenty dollars.; and
(12) For processing domestic violence petitions, twenty dollars.
(c) The clerk shall tax the following fees for services in any criminal case against any defendant convicted in such court:
(1) In the case of any misdemeanor, fifty-five dollars; and
(2) In the case of any felony, sixty-five dollars.
(3) In the case of processing home incarceration fees pursuant to section seven, article eleven-b, chapter sixty-two of this code, fifty dollars per case.
(d) No such clerk shall be required to handle or accept for disbursement any fees, cost or amounts, of any other officer or party not payable into the county treasury, except it be on order of the court or in compliance with the provisions of law governing such fees, costs or accounts.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to dramatically increase certain fees charged by circuit clerks.


 Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.