Senate Bill No. 243
(By Senator Kessler)
____________
[Introduced January 17, 2008; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §38-5A-4 and §38-5A-5 of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and reenact §38-5B-4
of said code; and to amend and reenact §59-1-11 of said code,
all relating to clarifying the fees assessed by circuit
clerks; and increasing the amount circuit clerks are allowed
to charge for copies and for preparing appeals.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §38-5A-4 and
§38-5A-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted; that §38-5B-4 of said code be
amended and reenacted; and that §59-1-11 of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 38. LIENS.
ARTICLE 5A. SUGGESTIONS OF SALARY AND WAGES OF PERSONS ENGAGED IN
PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT.
§
38-5A-4. Notice to judgment debtor; time for service on suggestee; fee.
A certified copy of an execution issued under this article
against salary or wages shall be served upon the judgment debtor.
Such service shall be made by the court or the clerk of the court
who issued the execution by mailing the copy to the judgment debtor
or his
or her agent authorized to accept service of process by
certified mail, return receipt requested. The day and hour of such
mailing shall be clearly noted on the face of the original
execution and the clerk of the court or the officer to whom it is
delivered for collection shall not make service upon the suggestee
until the expiration of five days from that time.
The fee for
service of notice under this section shall be one dollar and an
additional allowance for postage, certification fee, or other
expenses incurred in effecting service.
§38-5A-5. Service of suggestee execution upon suggestee; payments
in satisfaction of execution; action for failure or
refusal to pay; payments to be made every ninety
days
.
(a) Service of a suggestee execution against salary or wages
may be made by the clerk of the circuit court or the magistrate
court clerk, as the case may be, by sending a copy of the suggestee
execution to the suggestee by certified mail, return receipt
requested, with delivery restricted to the addressee
as provided by
subdivision (1), section (d) of rule four of the Rules of Civil Procedure for trial courts of record. If the registered mail is
unclaimed, or otherwise is not accepted or is refused by the
suggestee, then service of the suggestee execution shall be made in
the same manner as a summons commencing an action is served, in
accordance with the Rules of Civil Procedure for trial courts of
record:
Provided, That if the suggestee is located in a county
other than the county where the suggestee execution issues, the
clerk may mail the suggestee execution by first class mail to the
sheriff of the other county for such service. If the service is
made on a corporation, limited liability company, or other person
or entity through the Secretary of State, it shall be submitted
along with the fee required by section two, article one, chapter
fifty-nine of this code.
(b) If the suggestee served with the execution is indebted or
will in the future become indebted to the judgment debtor for
salary or wages, then during the time the execution remains a lien
on any indebtedness for salary and wages, the suggestee is required
to pay over to the officer serving the same or to the judgment
creditor the percentage of the indebtedness required by section
three of this article, until the execution is wholly satisfied.
The suggestee shall deduct the amounts paid from the amounts
payable to the judgment debtor as salary or wages, and the
deduction of these amounts is a bar to any further action by the
judgment creditor against the wages or salary of the judgment debtor.
(c) Once every ninety days during the life of such execution
and any renewal execution, the suggestee upon whom the execution or
any renewal execution is served shall pay over to the officer who
served the same or to the judgment creditor the full amount of
money held or retained pursuant to such execution or renewal
execution during the preceding ninety days.
If the suggestee upon whom the execution is served fails or
refuses to pay over to the officer serving the execution or to the
judgment creditor the required percentage of the indebtedness, as
aforesaid, he or she shall be liable to an action therefor by the
judgment creditor named in the execution and the amount recovered
in the action shall be applied in satisfaction of the execution.
ARTICLE 5B. SUGGESTION OF THE STATE AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS;
GARNISHMENT AND SUGGESTION OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
§38-5B-4. Notice to judgment debtor of execution against salary or
wages; time for service on officer of suggestee
.
A certified copy of an execution issued under this article
against salary or wages shall be served by the clerk of the court
who issued the execution upon the judgment debtor or his or her
agent authorized to accept service of process, by certified mail,
return receipt
requested, and delivery restricted to the addressee
requested. The day and hour of mailing shall be clearly noted on
the face of the original execution and the officer to whom it is delivered for collection shall not make service upon the proper
officer until the expiration of five days from that time.
CHAPTER 59. FEES, ALLOWANCES AND COSTS; NEWSPAPERS; LEGAL
ADVERTISEMENTS.
ARTICLE 1. FEES AND ALLOWANCES.
§59-1-11. Fees to be charged by clerk of circuit court.
(a) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect for
services rendered by the clerk the following fees which shall be
paid in advance by the parties for whom services are to be
rendered:
(1) For instituting any civil action under the Rules of Civil
Procedure, any statutory summary proceeding, any extraordinary
remedy, the docketing of civil appeals or any other action, cause,
suit or proceeding, one hundred forty-five dollars, of which thirty
dollars of that amount shall be deposited in the Courthouse
Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six, article
twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code and ten dollars shall
be deposited in the special revenue account created in section six
hundred three, article twenty-six, chapter forty-eight of this code
to provide legal services for domestic violence victims;
(2) For instituting an action for medical professional
liability, two hundred sixty dollars, of which ten dollars of that
amount shall be deposited in the Courthouse Facilities Improvement
Fund created by section six, article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code;
(3) Beginning on and after the first day of July, one thousand
nine hundred ninety-nine, for instituting an action for divorce,
separate maintenance or annulment, one hundred thirty-five dollars;
(4) For petitioning for the modification of an order involving
child custody, child visitation, child support or spousal support,
eighty-five dollars; and
(5) For petitioning for an expedited modification of a child
support order, thirty-five dollars.
(b) In addition to the foregoing fees, the following fees
shall likewise be charged and collected:
(1) For preparing an abstract of judgment, five dollars;
(2) For any transcript, copy or paper made by the clerk for
use in any other court or otherwise to go out of the office, for
each page,
fifty cents one dollar;
(3)
For action on suggestion, For issuing a suggestion and
serving notice to the debtor by certified mail, twenty-five
dollars;
(4) For issuing an execution, twenty-five dollars;
(5) For issuing or renewing a suggestee
execution, execution
and serving notice to the debtor by certified mail, twenty-five
dollars;
(6) For vacation or modification of a suggestee execution, one
dollar;
(7) For docketing and issuing an execution on a transcript of
judgment from magistrate's court, three dollars;
(8) For arranging the papers in a certified question, writ of
error, appeal or removal to any other court,
ten one hundred
forty-five dollars, of which five dollars of that amount shall be
deposited in the Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund created by
section six, article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code;
(9) For postage and express and for sending or receiving
decrees, orders or records, by mail or express, three times the
amount of the postage or express charges;
(10) For each subpoena, on the part of either plaintiff or
defendant, to be paid by the party requesting the same, fifty
cents;
(11) For additional service (plaintiff or appellant) where any
case remains on the docket longer than three years, for each
additional year or part year, twenty dollars; and
(12) For administering funds deposited into a federally
insured interest-bearing account or interest-bearing instrument
pursuant to a court order, fifty dollars, to be collected from the
party making the deposit. A fee collected pursuant to this
subdivision shall be paid into the general county fund.
(c) The clerk shall tax the following fees for services in any
criminal case against any defendant convicted in such court:
(1) In the case of any misdemeanor, eighty-five dollars; and
(2) In the case of any felony, one hundred five dollars, of
which ten dollars of that amount shall be deposited in the
Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six,
article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(d) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect a
fee of twenty-five dollars per bond for services rendered by the
clerk for processing of criminal bonds and the fee shall be paid at
the time of issuance by the person or entity set forth below:
(1) For cash bonds, the fee shall be paid by the person
tendering cash as bond;
(2) For recognizance bonds secured by real estate, the fee
shall be paid by the owner of the real estate serving as surety;
(3) For recognizance bonds secured by a surety company, the
fee shall be paid by the surety company;
(4) For ten percent recognizance bonds with surety, the fee
shall be paid by the person serving as surety; and
(5) For ten percent recognizance bonds without surety, the fee
shall be paid by the person tendering ten percent of the bail
amount.
In instances in which the total of the bond is posted by more
than one bond instrument, the above fee shall be collected at the
time of issuance of each bond instrument processed by the clerk and
all fees collected pursuant to this subsection shall be deposited
in the Courthouse Facilities Improvement Fund created by section six, article twenty-six, chapter twenty-nine of this code. Nothing
in this subsection may be construed as authorizing the clerk to
collect the above fee from any person for the processing of a
personal recognizance bond.
(e) The clerk of a circuit court shall charge and collect a
fee of ten dollars for services rendered by the clerk for
processing of bailpiece and the fee shall be paid by the surety at
the time of issuance. All fees collected pursuant to this
subsection shall be deposited in the Courthouse Facilities
Improvement Fund created by section six, article twenty-six,
chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(f) No clerk shall be required to handle or accept for
disbursement any fees, cost or amounts of any other officer or
party not payable into the county treasury, except on
written order
of the court or in compliance with the provisions of law governing
such fees, costs or accounts.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify certain fees
assessed by circuit clerks and to increase the fee for copies from
fifty cents to one dollar per page and for preparing appeals.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
Email
Webmaster | © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **
