SCS/HCS/HB 237, HB 238 and HB 482 - This act modifies provisions relating to the courts.
ANNUAL JUDICIAL REPORTS
This act allows the supreme court to consolidate the annual report of the Judicial Finance Commission with the publication of any annual report prepared by the Supreme Court or the Office of State Court Administrator, as long as the consolidated report is distributed to the required parties. (Section 477.600)
COURT FEES
This act allows municipal courts to create a fund to be used to pay for appointing attorneys for certain indigent defendants. The fund shall only be used to pay court-approved reasonable fees for attorneys for indigent defendants who cannot pay for legal representation and are required to have appointed counsel by supreme court rules or the law. The money for this fund will come from the one dollar fee collected on each case that currently goes to the judicial education fund. The municipal court will decide how to allocate the dollar fee between the judicial education fund and the appointed counsel fund. The municipal court may not retain more than five thousand dollars in the appointed counsel fund. (Section 479.260)
The act also modifies the current requirement that certain court fees be applied for maintenance and upkeep of the law library to make it optional that such funds be applied to the maintenance and upkeep of the law library. (Section 488.429)
SERVICE OF SUMMONS
Current law provides that a summons may require the presence of a defendant in court in a case before an associate circuit court judge, if the court date is less than thirty days from the service of the summons. This act would increase the time period in which the summons is effective from thirty days to sixty days. (Section 517.041)
A portion of this act is similar to SS/HCS/HB 481.
EMILY KALMER