HF 555

as introduced - 79th Legislature (1995 - 1996) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A bill for an act 
  1.2             relating to courts; requiring a plaintiff in a civil 
  1.3             action to pay an assessed judicial administrative cost 
  1.4             before a judgment will be docketed; proposing coding 
  1.5             for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 548. 
  1.6   BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
  1.7      Section 1.  [548.37] [ASSESSMENTS; JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATIVE 
  1.8   COSTS; CIVIL ACTIONS.] 
  1.9      (a) The state court administrator using cost analysis shall 
  1.10  establish a judicial cost model to be used in determining the 
  1.11  cost of processing civil actions in district court.  The model 
  1.12  must consist of all costs associated with processing a civil 
  1.13  case, including the cost of a judge's time; use of the court 
  1.14  chambers; and other administrative costs incurred for personnel, 
  1.15  operations, and capital outlay.  The state court administrator 
  1.16  shall require court administrators to determine the judicial 
  1.17  administrative cost for processing each civil action by using 
  1.18  the judicial cost model. 
  1.19     (b) When a judgment is issued in a civil action by the 
  1.20  court and the parties use of the court exceeds two hours, the 
  1.21  court shall impose a judicial administrative cost as an 
  1.22  assessment to be paid by the nonprevailing party. 
  1.23     (c) The judicial administrative cost authorized in 
  1.24  paragraph (b) may be assessed only if a trial exceeds two hours, 
  1.25  and the court may not aggregate the time used by hearings 
  2.1   relating to the civil action to satisfy the two-hour 
  2.2   prerequisite for an assessment. 
  2.3      (d) The court administrator shall collect and forward the 
  2.4   total amount of the assessment to the commissioner of finance 
  2.5   who shall credit all money so forwarded to the general fund.