Equal Justice Fund Authority

The bill creates the equal justice fund authority as a special purpose authority to administer distribute the equal justice fund fee for the purpose of providing monetary support to local organizations that provide legal representation and legal advice to low-income individuals. The equal justice authority is governed by the equal justice authority board, which is created in the bill.

The bill requires certain court filings to incur an additional $20 equal justice filing fee that must be annually deposited into the equal justice fund collected by the court and transmitted to the equal justice authority. The equal justice authority must deposit the money collected from the filing fee into an account maintained by a financial institution. The bill prohibits a judge from requiring indigent parties to pay the docket fee for a civil action.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)