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 civi l actions, suits or proceedings in circuit courtsto $395. Foreclosure case fees will now be bases on asliding scale, ranginh from $395 to $1,900, depending on the valu of the property or mortgage claim. The new fees are intende d to produce revenue forthe state, a move that’s gettinfg mixed reactions from local At issue is the fact that $80 of the fees from all typesd of cases will go to the state’z general revenue fund, which can be used for anything. In the fees charged by the court systekm typically funded onlyjudicial programs. there were about 385,3009 foreclosures in 2008, which would have translated into $30.
8 million had the fee been in placelast “The basic problem here is the Legislature is usingb the judicial system as a funding source for non-judiciao programs,” said John Fisher, an attorney with Orlando-basesd . The bill’s fee changes also come at a time when foreclosureds are atan all-time high in Florida, which ranksd No. 1 in the United Statew in foreclosure inventory, the The change could leave lendersd witha “massive new fee to even startg down the road” to resolvs unpaid mortgages, said Wade a partner at the Winterr Park-based .
All real estate-related cases including foreclosures, construction liens, boundary disputesw between property owners and other disputed over realestate — will be Vose said. The sliding-scale fees, depending on the valud of the property ormortgage claim, mean someonee filing a claim on property or a mortgage valued at: $50,00o0 or less will pay $395. $50,001 to $250,000o will pay $900. $250,00q or more will pay $1,900. The same rates apply to anyon e filinga counterclaim, counterpetition or third-party complaint for any real estate-relates cases. The higher fees may deter new case filingss by thosewho can’t afford the increasefd costs, said Fisher.
And although most casesd will get filed regardless of the increasing the costs may make some people feel their access to the courtais limited, he said. Ed Loos III, a partnetr and shareholder in the Orlando officse ofFort Lauderdale-based Greenspoon said the new fees shouldn’t deter mortgage lenders from filingb because, in the end, a $1,900 fee is outweighefd by a $250,000 or more claim, and the fee will be includefd in the judgment. Van chief executive officer of , said the changes won’t stop his bank from filinhg a claim.
However, the fee increase will be a short-term fix to the state’xs budgetary problems because foreclosuree filings will drop once the market Bogan said. Until then, “thd consumer will bear the brunt of Added Vose: “Part of the way real estate corrects itself is throug h litigation of these issues, and the fees seem counterproductivde to helping work out the real estate imbalancse in Florida.
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