BILL #    HB 2265	TITLE: courts; fees; assessments
SPONSOR:    Carter N	STATUS: As Introduced
PREPARED BY:    Ethan Scheider

Description

The bill would prohibit courts from assessing fees related to the appointment of a public defender, prohibit certain fees related to criminal cases, and prohibit the adoption of any fees not specifically authorized by statute.

Estimated Impact

Based on information provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), we estimate that the bill would reduce court fee revenues statewide by approximately $(3.7) million annually.

Analysis

Our estimated impact is based on the following:

1) The bill would result in the elimination of indigent defense fees, which include collections of a $25 indigent administrative assessment and reimbursements paid to the county for public defense costs. In FY 2025, the statewide collections from of these fees totaled $2.6 million.

2) The bill would eliminate local prosecution fees, which are assessed on criminal defendants to recover costs for prosecuting offenses. In FY 2025, the statewide collections from of these fees totaled $1.0 million.

3) The bill would prohibit jury fees being imposed in a criminal case. In FY 2025 the Superior Court collected a total of $144,100 in jury fees for both criminal and civil cases. We assume that 90% of the fees are from criminal cases.

4) The bill would also prohibit filing fees for a jury trial in a criminal case and appellate filing fees on a criminal defendant. We are unable to estimate the impact of these fee eliminations without additional revenue information from AOC.

2/16/26