Jim Rosica
A Tallahassee judge has denied the state’s request to toss out a lawsuit over funding of the state’s court clerks.
Circuit Judge Karen Gievers‘ two-page order was dated Dec. 12 but not docketed till Tuesday, records show. “The four corners of the complaint state a cause of action,” she wrote.
The Department of Revenue, the Department of Financial Services and the Joint Legislative Budget Commission had filed a motion to dismiss against Broward County Clerk of Court Howard Forman.
Forman, who did not run for re-election this year, is being succeeded after 16 years as clerk by his wife, Brenda Forman.
He wants a judge to declare the current system of “funding of the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts performing court-related functions” as unconstitutional.
Florida’s court clerks have long complained about what they consider underfunding by the state. They have responded by shrinking staff and reducing their office hours.
Records show the state’s clerks collectively take in more than $1 billion yearly in filing fees and other court costs but get back less than half of that for operations, even as Florida has largely rebounded from the Great Recession.
The defendants had said elected officeholders like Forman don’t have the legal standing to file constitutional challenges. They also argued the budgeting process was OK’d under a previous challenge in 2010, and there’s no constitutional requirement that any particular amount of money from fees has to go back to the clerks.
Forman’s complaint asserts the defendants are wrongly allowing filing fees collected by the clerks to be diverted into general revenue and various trust funds “for purposes other than for funding of the offices of the clerks.”
Forman, a Democrat and former state senator, filed on behalf of himself. The statewide Florida Clerks & Comptrollers association is not a party to the suit.
The state now has till Jan. 5 to respond to the suit’s allegations and offer any legal defenses.
