Title
Title
Judicial Council-Sponsored Legislation | Telephone Appearance Fee Revenue Distribution (Action Required)
body
Summary
Summary
The Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee and Judicial Branch Budget Committee recommend that the Judicial Council sponsor legislation to (1) amend the statute that governs telephone appearance service fees to update and improve the formula to be more equitable and reflect current revenue allocation standards, and (2) amend the statutes that prescribe the method of transmitting those fees to reflect current fiscal practices in the courts. The proposed amendments would have no impact on the fee charged to individuals for telephone appearance services.
body
Recommendation
Recommendation
The Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee and Judicial Branch Budget Committee recommend that the Judicial Council sponsor legislation to:
1. Amend Government Code section 68085.1, which sets forth procedures for transmitting and distributing specified fees and fines collected by the courts, to include the fee share amounts collected by courts that directly provide telephone appearance services;
2. Amend Government Code section 72011(a) to increase from $20 to $23 the fee share that each vendor or court that provides telephone appearance services must transmit to the State Treasury for deposit in the Trial Court Trust Fund;
3. Amend Government Code section 72011(b) to require that courts transmit the fee share amount in a method and time frame that is consistent with their regular judicial branch fiscal practices, as provided in Government Code section 68085.1; and
4. Repeal subdivisions (c) through (e) of Government Code section 72011, which require vendors to transmit each year an amount equal to the total amount of revenue received by courts from vendors under revenue-sharing arrangements in fiscal year (FY) 2009-10, and authorize the Judicial Council to allocate that amount among the courts that previously had revenue-sharing arrangements with vendors under separate contracts.