Pinellas Clerk and Property Apprasier Unity to Provide Better Technology

Pinellas County's Clerk of the Circuit Court, Ken Burke, and Property Appraiser, Pam Dubov, have each added a new function to their respective websites, making each site a more powerful and useful tool, especially for those in the real estate, title, or insurance industries.

Many people who use the Property Appraiser’s website, www.pcpao.org, need to view a parcel’s deed, but deeds are stored on the Clerk’s website, www.mypinellasclerk.org. To facilitate this need, the Property Appraiser added links that go to the Clerk’s site. These new links can be found near the sales transaction information on the Property Appraisers site. Customers can now follow these links directly to an image of the parcel’s deed. If the deed is not in the system and an electronic image is not available, a message displays alerting the customer. Similarly, on the Clerk’s website, links from the Official Records Search Page will redirect customers to the Property Appraiser information associated with a particular parcel.

Wrangling Over Control of Court Technology

Sadly our state courts has failed to keep up with technology as far as electronic access for filing and reviewing documents. Now though this issue is apparent and rules regarding the same have been drafted, the fight for control of the process has slowed us down once again. The elected Clerks of Court and the court system have both staked a claim to control of the Internet "portal." I know they are communicating and trying to come to a resolution. Let's hope the dispute can be resolved more quickly than most as Floridian legal consumers stand to benefit significantly from the technology we now have available.

Bad Faith & Attorney's Fees

An appellate rule change pending now before the Florida Supreme Court could make it easier for a party to seek attorney's fees and costs when the other side acts frivolously or in bad faith. The change was recommended by a vote of 39-0 by the Appellate Court Rules Committee. Under the current rules there is a deadline for lawyers to seek fees and costs from the other side pursuant to Florida Statute, section 57.105. If the bad conduct on the other side occurred after that time deadline, then technically the lawyer could not see relief through fees and costs. The change proposed modifies the rules to allow the lawyer to move for fees and costs because of bad conduct at any point in the case. It is clearly a logical and necessary rule change to try to curtail bad behavior.

Pending Bills Will Increase Filing Fees

Today, I received a letter from our locally elected, Clerk of Court, Ken Burke. He advises that 2 bills which passed the recent legislative session and are awaiting the Governor's signature cause some serious concerns. The bills in question are Senate Bills 1718 and 2108.

The first bill will dramatically increase filing fees by instituting a graduated scale for real property or mortgage foreclosure cases where, in some cases, filing fees may be as high as $1,900. The bill also greatly reduces the operational funding for Clerks statewide which will result in severe staff reductions and necessarily impact service levels.

The second bill restricts spending for technology initiatives that would enable the Clerk to further streamline work processes and increase office efficiency.

While these bills address items that may not be very glamorous they have real impact on all of us and fundamental right to access and effectively utilize the Court system. We need the system to civilly resolve disputes. I know that our Pinellas County Clerk’s Office is committed to providing exceptional service in all areas of operation under Mr. Burke's leadership.

Consider if you would like to help let Governor Crist know the negative impact of these bills, and if so, get involved and send him a letter. The address is: Office of Governor Charlie Crist, State of Florida, The Capitol, 400 S. Monroe St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Child Support Forgiveness in Adoption Cases

Upon entry of a Final Judgment of Adoption of Minor Child, it is clear that the birth parents' ongoing child support obligation ends. But in Step-Parent Adoption cases, past due child support (arrearages) may also be forgiven even though the case law on child support states that the right to child support belongs to the child. What cannot be forgiven by the prospective parents are payments owed to third parties, like the Clerk of Court or the Department of Revenue. A motion related to forgiveness would be filed after the adoption is finalized and only if the adopting parents freely and voluntarily wish to do so. See Florida Statutes, Section 63.212(e).

FILING FEES

In the summer of 2008, there was an increase in court filing fees that occurred state wide. What was more shocking for most of us was not that the courts were charging $408.00 rather than $363.00 for a new divorce filing, but that there would be a $295.00 charge for all counter-petitions. Seems like many people around the state are in an uproar over the charge for a counter-petition for dissolution of marriage. Apparently some county clerks (though not Ken Burke here in Pinellas County) are continuing to charge this fee even after the Attorney General issued a formal opinion that stated that the filing fee for counter-petitions was not authorized in family law cases. Now the clerks of the court are subject to a class action suit which has been filed in Hillsborough County about the wrongful charging of these filing fees. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out, but I would hope that the clerks would have to return these fees to the people who have already paid them and to stop collecting the fees from future counter-petitioners.