Circuit Clerks Sued Over Counter-Claim Filing Fee

Confusion over a new circuit clerk filing fee has prompted a lawsuit, filed last week in Hillsborough County.

The Legislature voted last year to allow clerks statewide to charge a $295 fee for counterclaims filed in circuit court. The money goes directly to the state Department of Revenue.

Since July 1, however, many clerks have imposed the fee on individuals filing counter-petitions in divorce cases. The state statute does not specifically include family law cases.

Now, three clerks - Pat Frank, Ken Burke and Paula O'Neil - have been named as defendants in a lawsuit by Tampa lawyer Richard Harrison.

Harrison's lawsuit is on behalf of four people who were charged the fee since November in the counties - Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco, respectively - where the clerks serve.

Frank stopped charging the fee recently, and her office has refunded the money to all but a handful of individuals who were charged, according to her attorney, Dale Bohner.

Other clerks have handled it differently.

Some, such as Burke, have stopped collecting the fee, but have yet to refund any money. Some, such as O'Neil, continue collecting the fee. And some clerks never assessed it at all.

Harrison called it "One state statute being applied four different ways, depending which county you live in."

In November, state Attorney General Bill McCollum issued an opinion saying the fee did not appear to apply to family law filings, but he also recommended the clerks work with legislators to clarify the statute.

Legal counsel for the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corp. said the fee did apply to family law filings.

That prompted lawyers such as Bohner, who serve individual clerks, to recommend the $295 be collected.

Bohner said he changed his opinion in February once the clerks' corporation's lawyers withdrew their support of collecting the fee.

Harrison's lawsuit asks for a Hillsborough Circuit Court judge to determine whether the fee is legal and, if not, to order clerks to stop charging it and refund any money collected.

O'Neil said her office will continue to collect the fee until such a determination is made. She said McCollum's opinion wasn't clear enough to cause her to stop last year.

"I don't feel compelled to change what I feel we're doing correctly by statute," she said Monday.