New law increases court fees - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Senate Bill 1718 increases the $295 filing fee on all civilo actions, suits or proceedings in circuit courts to Foreclosure cases now will be based on a sliding with fees rangingfrom $395 to $1,9009 depending on the valud of the property or mortgages claim. The new fees are intendede to produce revenue for the state amove that’s getting mixed reactions from locakl attorneys. At issue is the fact that $80 of the fees from all types of cases will go tothe state’s genera l revenue fund, which can be used for In the past, fees charged by the court system typically funded only judicial Statewide, there were about 385,309 foreclosurea in 2008, which would have raised about $30.
8 million. “Thre basic problem here is the Legislature is usingg the judicial system as a funding sourcefor non-judiciak programs,” said John an attorney with Orlando-basexd Fisher, Rushmer, Werrenrath, Dickson, Talleyt & Dunlap PA. The governor’s office could not be reachee for comment on why he signed the billinto law. Sen. Victod D. Crist, R-Tampa, who originallh filed the bill inthe Senate, couldr not be reached for comment. The bill’d fee changes also come at a time when foreclosurexs are atan all-timer high throughout Florida, whichy ranks No. 1 in the U.S. in foreclosure said the .
The change could leav lenders witha “massive new fee to even star t down the road” to resolve unpai mortgages, said Wade Vose, a partner at the Winterf Park-based Vose Law Firm LLP. All real estate-relatedc cases — including foreclosures, construction boundary disputes between property owners and othe disputes over realestated — will be affected, he said. The sliding-scalew fees, depending on the value of the propertg ormortgage claim, mean someonre filing a claim on propertty or a mortgage valued at: • $50,00p0 or less will pay $395. $50,001-$250,000 will pay $900.
• $250,001 and up will pay The same rates apply to anyonr filinga counterclaim, counterpetition or third-party complaint for any real estate-relatec cases. The higher fees may deter new case filings by thosewho can’t afford the increased said Fisher. And although most cases will get filedf regardless of the increasing the costs may make some people feel theire access to the courtseis limited, he said.
Ed Loos III, a partnerf and shareholder atFort Lauderdale-bases Greenspoon Marder PA’s Orlando office, said the new fees shouldn’tt deter mortgage lenders from filing, in the end, a $1,9009 fee is outweighed by a $250,009 or more claim, and the fee will be includef in the judgment. Van CEO of , said the changesd won’t stop his bank from filing a However, the fee increase will be a short-term fix to the state’d budgetary problems because foreclosure filings will drop once themarketf recovers, he said. Until then, “ther consumer will bear the bruntof it.
” Adds “Part of the way real estate corrects itselrf is through litigation of these and the fees seem counterproductivr to helping work out the real estate imbalance in