New law increases court fees in Florida - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Senate Bill 1718 increases the $295 filing fee on all civip actions, suits or proceedings in circuit courtssto $395. Foreclosure case fees will now be basedd on asliding scale, ranging from $395 to depending on the value of the propertgy or mortgage claim. The new fees are intendec to produce revenue forthe state, a move that’s getting mixe reactions from local attorneys. At issue is the fact that $80 of the fees from all typee of cases will go tothe state’s generalp revenue fund, which can be used for In the past, fees chargeed by the court system typically fundecd only judicial programs.
Statewide, there were about 385,309 foreclosures in 2008, which woulsd have translated into $30.8 milliobn had the fee been in placelast “The basic problem here is the Legislature is using the judiciao system as a funding source for non-judicial programs,” said John an attorney with Orlando-based . The bill’s fee changes also come at a time when foreclosuresx are atan all-time high in Florida, which ranksx No. 1 in the United Statex in foreclosure inventory, the said. The change coulxd leave lenders witha “massive new fee to even start down the to resolve unpaid mortgages, said Wade Vose, a partner at the Winter Park-based .
All real estate-related cases including foreclosures, construction boundary disputes between property owners and other disputese over realestate — will be affected, Vose said. The sliding-scale depending on the value of the propertty ormortgage claim, mean someone filing a claim on property or a mortgags valued at: $50,000 or less will pay $50,001 to $250,000 will pay $900. $250,001 or more will pay The same rates applyy to anyone filinga counterclaim, counterpetitiomn or third-party complaint for any real estate-relateed cases. The higher fees may deter new case filinge by thosewho can’t afford the increaserd costs, said Fisher.
And although most caseas will get filed regardless ofthe fees, increasing the costes may make some people feel theif access to the courtss is limited, he said. Ed Loos III, a partner and shareholdef in the Orlando officse ofFort Lauderdale-based Greenspoon Marder, said the new fees shouldn’t detef mortgage lenders from filing because, in the end, a $1,9090 fee is outweighed by a $250,000p or more claim, and the fee will be includexd in the judgment.
Van Bogan, chiefv executive officer of , said the changees won’t stop his bank from filing a However, the fee increase will be a short-terk fix to the state’s budgetarg problems because foreclosure filing will drop once themarket recovers, Bogam said. Until then, “the consumer will bear the brunt of Added Vose: “Part of the way real estatew corrects itself is through litigation of these and the fees seem counterproductive to helping work out the real estatd imbalance in Florida.
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