Minnesota Session Laws - 1983, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1983 

                         CHAPTER 13--S.F.No. 195
           An act relating to courts; increasing the fee and 
          mileage allowance paid to witnesses; providing for fee 
          allowances to be paid to witnesses in juvenile 
          proceedings; providing for compensation to a parent or 
          guardian of a minor witness; amending Minnesota 
          Statutes 1982, sections 357.22; 357.24; and proposing 
          new law coded in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 357. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 357.22, is 
amended to read: 
    357.22 [WITNESSES.] 
    The fees to be paid to witnesses shall be as follows: 
    (1) For attending in any action or proceeding in any court 
of record, in any justice court, or before any officer, person, 
or board authorized to take the examination of witnesses, $10 
for each day; 
    (2) For travel in going to and returning from the place of 
attendance, to be estimated from his residence, if within the 
state, or from the boundary line of the state where he crossed 
the same it, if without the state, 12 24 cents per mile.  
    No person is obliged to attend as a witness in any civil 
case unless one day's attendance and travel fees are paid or 
tendered him in advance.  
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 357.24, is 
amended to read:  
    357.24 [CRIMINAL CASES.] 
    Witnesses for the state in criminal cases shall receive the 
same fees for travel and attendance as provided in section 
357.22, and judges of courts of record may, in their discretion, 
allow like fees to witnesses attending in behalf of any 
defendant.  In addition these witnesses shall receive reasonable 
expenses actually incurred for meals, loss of wages and child 
care, not to exceed $25 $40 per day.  In courts of record these 
witness fees shall be certified and paid in the same manner as 
jurors.  
    Sec. 3.  [357.241] [JUVENILE COURT WITNESSES.] 
    Witnesses in juvenile proceedings shall receive the same 
fees for travel and attendance as provided in section 357.22. In 
addition these witnesses shall receive reasonable expenses 
actually incurred for meals, loss of wages, and child care, not 
to exceed $40 per day. 
    Sec. 4.  [357.242] [PARENTS OF JUVENILES.] 
    In any proceeding where a parent or guardian attends the 
proceeding with a minor witness and the parent or guardian is 
not himself a witness, one parent or guardian shall be 
compensated in those cases where witness compensation is 
mandatory under sections 357.22, 257.24, or section 3, and may 
be compensated at the discretion of the judge when the minor is 
a witness on behalf of a defendant in a criminal case or on 
behalf of a juvenile in a juvenile court proceeding.  The court 
shall award no more than a combined total of $40 to the parent 
or guardian and the minor witness. 
    Approved March 23, 1983