Joint Interim Study Commission on Court Costs

Court costs in Alabama are inconsistent across jurisdictions because counties passed local laws authorizing fees that differ from one another. To address this, the Alabama Legislature created the Joint Interim Study Commission on Court Costs to study Alabama court costs and recommend ways to make costs more uniform across the state. The inventory of state and local costs found that although every county charges the same statewide court cost, most counties also charge additional local fees. These local add-ons vary county by county on the same exact type of case. The report includes historical context on how these add-on variances came to be, where the revenue goes, what it funds, and how Alabama compares to other states. It also found that criminal cases have a collection rate between 15 and 20 percent, compared with civil cases, which have a near-100 percent collection rate. The commission cautions against treating criminal-defendant-funded court costs as an economically feasible revenue source.

You can read the full text here.

Key Findings:

• Local court costs range from $0 to $182, with an average of $30.
• The average county has about 39 separate local charges.

Recommendations:

• Create a more uniform statewide fee structure.
• Require all new court costs to include a periodic legislative review date.
• Consider funding non-court functions (jails, general county funds, law enforcement) through different funding mechanisms.