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Survey Reports Problems with Filing New Fees

BY Leigh Jones
December 01, 2003

Cries from practitioners balking at last summer's increase in filing fees appear to have intensified as complaints mount about problems with the collection of those fees. The New York State Bar Association is expected to release the results of a survey to the Office of Court Administration this week, which State Bar President A. Thomas Levin said identifies several criticisms with the new state Supreme Court fees required for filing motions, cross motions and stipulations of settlement and discontinuance.

The survey, which he said was sent to about 13,000 practitioners and generated about 350 responses, asked attorneys across the state what kinds of experiences they were having with the charges implemented in July, and how the collection of those fees should be administered. Levin said many of the responses indicated that attorneys were still bristling from the rise in fees, which went up in several areas. The increase, initiated in part to defray the costs of assigned counsel for indigent clients, included three new charges: a $45 fee for all motions and cross motions, a $35 charge for filing a stipulation of settlement, and a $35 fee for submitting a voluntary discontinuance. Other filing fees also rose.

“They're still mad that they have to pay more in the first place,” Levin said. But the problem apparently is not just money. Many responses indicated logistics problems associated with paying motion fees, he said. In suburban and upstate areas, county clerk's offices, where the fees are paid, often are located separately from Supreme Court motion support, where motions are usually filed. Apparently, there are some rough spots with coordinating those offices.

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