COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 414
(By Senators Oliverio, Foster, Green, Stollings, Wells,
Barnes, Caruth, Deem, Hall, McKenzie and Yoder)
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[Originating in the Committee on Finance;
reported February 15, 2007.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §38-5B-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §59-1-11 of said
code, all relating to establishing a flat fee for certain
services rendered by circuit clerks; eliminating other
miscellaneous fees charged by circuit clerks; and authorizing
the circuit clerk to assess a fee for creating and
administering certain special funds.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §38-5B-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §59-1-11 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 38. LIENS.
ARTICLE 5B. SUGGESTION OF THE STATE AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS;
GARNISHMENT AND SUGGESTION OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
§38-5B-4. Notice to judgment debtor of execution against salary or
wages; time for service on officer of suggestee; fee
A certified copy of an execution issued under this article
against salary or wages shall be served upon the judgment debtor.
Such service Service shall be made by the court or the clerk of the
court who issued the execution by enclosing the copy in a postpaid
wrapper, addressed to the judgment debtor or his or her agent
authorized to accept service of process, and forwarding the same by
registered mail, return receipt requested. The day and hour of
such mailing shall be clearly noted on the face of the original
execution and the officer to whom it is delivered for collection
shall not make service upon the proper officer until the expiration
of five days from that time. The fee for service of notice under
this section shall be twenty-five cents without any additional
allowance for postage, registry fee, or other expenses incurred in
effecting service.
CHAPTER 59. FEES, ALLOWANCES AND COSTS;
NEWSPAPERS; LEGAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
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 by the clerk the following fees
and such
fees which 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, one hundred forty-five dollars, of which thirty dollars of that amount shall be deposited in the Courthouse
Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six, article
twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code and ten dollars shall
be deposited in the special revenue account created in section six
hundred three, article twenty-six, chapter forty-eight of this code
to provide legal services for domestic violence victims;
(2) For instituting an action for medical professional
liability, two hundred sixty dollars, of which ten dollars of that
amount shall be deposited in the Courthouse Facilities Improvement
Fund created by section six, article twenty-six, chapter
twenty-nine of this code;
(3) Beginning on and after the first day of July, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-nine, for instituting an action for divorce,
separate maintenance or annulment, one hundred thirty-five dollars;
(4) For petitioning for the modification of an order involving
child custody, child visitation, child support or spousal support,
eighty-five dollars; and
(5) For petitioning for an expedited modification of a child
support order, thirty-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 twenty-five dollars;
(4) For issuing an execution,
ten twenty-five 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 twenty-five 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, ten dollars, of which
five dollars of that amount shall be deposited in the Courthouse
Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six, article
twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code;
(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;
(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.
(12) For each action in which court-ordered funds are
deposited into a federally insured interest-bearing account or
invested in an interest-bearing instrument, the party depositing the funds shall pay a fee of fifty dollars at the time of deposit
to the court as an administrative fee for the benefit of the
general county fund.
(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, eighty-five dollars; and
(2) In the case of any felony, one hundred five dollars, of
which ten dollars of that amount shall be deposited in the
Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six,
article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(d) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect a
fee of twenty-five dollars per bond for services rendered by the
clerk for processing of criminal bonds and the fee shall be paid at
the time of issuance by the person or entity set forth below:
(1) For cash bonds, the fee shall be paid by the person
tendering cash as bond;
(2) For recognizance bonds secured by real estate, the fee
shall be paid by the owner of the real estate serving as surety;
(3) For recognizance bonds secured by a surety company, the
fee shall be paid by the surety company;
(4) For ten percent recognizance bonds with surety, the fee
shall be paid by the person serving as surety; and
(5) For ten percent recognizance bonds without surety, the fee
shall be paid by the person tendering ten percent of the bail
amount.
In instances in which the total of the bond is posted by more than one bond instrument, the above fee shall be collected at the
time of issuance of each bond instrument processed by the clerk and
all fees collected pursuant to this subsection
(d) shall be
deposited in the Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund created by
section six, article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code.
Nothing in this subsection may be construed as authorizing the
clerk to collect the above fee from any person for the processing
of a personal recognizance bond; and
(e) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect a
fee of ten dollars for services rendered by the clerk for
processing of bailpiece and the fee shall be paid by the surety at
the time of issuance. All fees collected pursuant to this
subsection
(e) shall be deposited in the Courthouse Facilities
Improvement Fund created by section six, article twenty-six,
chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(f) 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.