Court Fees and Getting Court Fees Paid –
Paying court fees is important. But if you cannot pay the fee then the court may pardon your court fee. You can easily get it waived. Mentioned below are several types of court fees. Also, you may be required to pay fees for your court case.
What is a filing fee?
When you start the process of filing a suit/case, then in the beginning you are required to pay a court fee. Also, the amount of fee which you have to pay depends mostly on the type of court where you are filing your case and the type of case you are filing. It may be for instance a motor accidents claim case, or a defamation case, etc. You may be filing the case in the higher court, or courts subordinate to higher courts, etc. So, different courts will have different requirements for payment of court fees. Also, you may be required to pay other filing fees at different times. You will get all the details of the court fee from the court clerk.
Do all court cases require filing fees?
Many courts do not require a filing fee. In cases such as that of domestic violence, family law cases like child custody/support do not require one to pay the court fee for filing the case. If you did not begin the case then you don’t have to pay a single penny.
Are there any other fees that I should expect to pay in my court case?
Even if you did not begin the case, still there are some fees that you have to pay. They are as follows –
Service fee–
This fee you will have to pay to the sheriff/process server, to serve the summons/papers on the other party in your case.
Witness fee–
You are required to pay a witness fee if you call a witness to testify at a trial.
Mediation fee–
Mediator fee is the fee that you pay to the mediator in case of family law case where children are involved and the other parent of the child has agreed to the custody of the child or as the case may be.
Appeal fee–
If you are approaching the higher court against the order of the subordinate court in your case and want the higher court to review your case, then you will have to pay a fee for the appeal.
I cannot afford court fees. What can I do?
If you cannot pay the fee you can easily get it waived i.e. forgiven by the court. All you have to do is contact your lawyer and ask him to do the same. If you don’t have a lawyer, then you can approach the local legal aid office. Also, you can request the judge to waive your court fee by filing a form of the fee waiver request. Different courts will have different rules and you can get some of the court fee waived. Plus, some criteria are you should be getting advantages like welfare, food, stamps, or SSI benefits. The next criteria should be that you don’t have sufficient income to help your family needs and pay the court fees.