Legal Alert from KTS Law
On June 29, 2023, the California State Legislature filed SB 564 with the Secretary of State, which increases statutorily determined fees for serving, executing, and processing certain court documents by Sheriffs’ and Marshals’ offices. California law requires the Legislature to provide for an elected county Sheriff, provide for the duties of the Sheriff, and prescribe fees for serving, executing, and processing required court notices, writs, orders, and other services provided by Sheriffs and Marshals. Sheriffs’ offices are required to serve civil process, including summons, warrants, evictions, wage garnishments, small claims documents, levies on property, writs, and other court orders. As part of this process, they are permitted to collect statutorily set fees to cover the cost of providing these services. The passage of SB 564 has increased those fees for services provided by Sheriffs and Marshals, which is the first fee increase since 2015. Each fee increase is specified in the below chart. Due to these increases in the hard costs of your cases, you will see that the fees advanced and charged to your cases will be increased on your billing statements. These new increased fees will be effective and assessed beginning January 1, 2024. In support of the passage of SB 564, the Legislature has noted that the overall cost of business has, along with the cost of living and inflation, skyrocketed in recent months. The Sheriffs’ and Marshals’ offices have stated that they have had a steady increase in personnel and resource costs since 2014 (when the last fee increase was approved), creating revenue deficits within their civil units. They state that this has compounded the need to increase the fees for the services they provide. Additionally, the bill’s proponents argued that recently enacted legislation, namely AB 2791 (Bloom), Chapter 417, Statutes 2022, which requires officers to accept electronic submission of requests for service of process beginning in 2024, will further increase their costs of business. SB 564 increases the statutorily capped fees Sheriffs’ and Marshals’ Offices can collect to fulfill their legal process services, due to inflation and the increase of costs to provide these services. This bill retains the existing fee waiver process to ensure low-income individuals are not disproportionately impacted by the fee increase. The full text of SB 564 can be viewed here. From KTS This article is for general information purposes only. Our courtesy notifications are not meant to be exhaustive and do not take the place of legislative services or membership in trade associations. Laws may have changed since this article was published.
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