Stay Connected
 
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Need a Speaker?
Clerk Inzer and his team are available to speak to your organization on a variety of topics. Contact us at clerk_public@leoncountyfl.gov if you'd like to schedule a date and time. |
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Changes Coming to the Portal
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A new release of the portal will be in place on April 16. Here are some of the changes: - Judges will be added to the eservice list; they will not receive the notice of inclusion email every time they are added.
- The confidentiality buttons on the Documents tab will be removed and replaced with a warning.
- The eservice attachment file size will be increased from 5MB to 10MB.
- The document submission size will be increased from 25MB to 50MB.
- The case type will be added to the notice of inclusion emails for all filings; case name/style will be fixed to show on new case filings.
- The filing ID in the my alerts area will take the filer right into the submission so corrections can be made.
- Filers will no longer be forced to add another indigence form when a filing has been sent to the pending queue.
- An alias list will allow the filer to add multiple aliases for parties entered - 40 character field.
- New filer roles will be added - Case Manager, Guardian Ad Litem, Coordinate Victim Assistance Center and Organization.
- Filers will be able to submit proposed orders through the portal, when enabled by a judicial officer in each county.
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When Attorneys Don't Pay Filing Fees
Non-payment of fees by attorneys is being addressed in two ways: locally and on the efiling portal. Clerks are mandated by Florida law to collect civil filing fees for all services noted in Chapter 28. My office has reviewed and identified a number of attorneys who have failed to pay statutorily required fees before and after the efiling portal came into existence. We either have contacted these attorneys or will be contacting them shortly to arrange for payment. After contact, if payment is not made within 30 days, we will be sending the accounts to a collection agency and reporting the non-payment issue to the Florida Bar.
Further, the Florida Courts E-filing Authority, the governing body of the efiling portal, recently approved a policy change concerning the non-payment of fees on the portal. Three types of problems and solutions were addressed concerning the ACH (automated transfer from a checking-type account) payment method:
- Filers have insufficient funds in their accounts to pay fees: They will be given 30 days to respond and pay. Then the delinquency will be sent to a collection agency and reported to the Bar.
- Filers list an invalid account, usually by mistyping the numbers: They will be given 45 days to fix the problem before being turned over to a collection agency and reported to the Bar.
- Filers have placed a block on drawing money from the debit account: Defaulters will be given 45 days to fix the problem before being turned over to a collection agency and reported to the Bar.
If you know you owe fees to this office, please contact us to arrange for payment. We want to work with you to clear up non-payment issues.
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 What Happened with the Clerks' Budgets this Legislative Session?
The Governor has just approved next year's budget after making some adjustments. With respect to the Clerks' budget there is good news and bad. The good news is that he did not eliminate the $12.9 million in this year's budget or the $11.7 million in the year after which is designed to cover jury expenses. The bad news is that Clerks will again experience further budget reductions. Revenues to support this year's budget have declined such that even with the infusion of $12.9 million this year, it will be insufficient to support our current budget.
Clerks recently met to discuss implementation of a 3.4% reduction to this year's budget. This is in addition to the 5% reduction we took at the beginning of the year. While next year's revenue projections are still under review, it is clear that Clerks will take a further reduction next year. As a frame of reference, Leon County's 2015/16 budget is 11.94% lower than our approved budget for 2005/06.
We are examining what actions we need to take to balance our budget. We spend over 90% of our budget for salaries and benefits. So any meaningful budget reduction is, by necessity, employees. In anticipation of this, we have been freezing position as they became vacant to eliminate the need for layoffs. Each year, we continually reduce the number of employees, which means the remaining employees are expected to do more. That, along with no raises in many years and little expectation of advancement, has resulted in a high level of employee turnover.
We ask for your consideration as we strive to meet your needs. |
Do You Still Need Your Attorney Pickup Box?
Are you wondering why you need your pickup box at the Clerk's Office now that there is e-service. Do you wonder what we would do with notices to your firm if you didn't have a pickup box? Those are some of the questions we been asked lately, so we thought we'd respond to everyone.
If you do not have a pickup box, the Clerk's Office would mail documents that need to be sent from our office. When we engage in e-service, we will be sending via email. Those attorneys that keep pickup boxes like to be able to drop off documents for others. But if you are efiling and emailing your documents, you might want to reconsider having a pickup box in the Clerk's Office.
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This newsletter is published to help keep you informed of current events impacting the clerks' offices that affect you. If you have a particular topic you'd like to see addressed in this newsletter, please email us at clerk_public@leoncountyfl.gov and let us know. Sincerely,  Bob Inzer, Clerk & Comptroller Serving the Citizens of Leon County
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Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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