The March 2013 issue (pdf) of The Recorder, which is the newsletter of the Texas Municipal Court Education Center, contains three items (at least ) that may interest Grits readers.
A story on page one deals with the failure of Harris and many other counties to issue a "bill of costs" accompanying criminal court judgments. (See this Grits post, which was referenced in the article, along with this followup and an explanatory document published soon thereafter by the Office of Court Administration.) Many counties, apparently, have either not been issuing bills of cost or have not been doing them properly. This is a sleeper issue that Grits still suspects may balloon before too long into a Very Big Deal.
Another front-page article deals with "scofflaw" programs wherein cities seek to collect traffic fines by flagging them for the county to prevent the driver's next vehicle registration. The programs have been largely unsuccessful and counties have frequently balked, declining to endure the reduced revenue, longer lines and angrier customers for a policy that only benefits municipalities. This issue came to a head in Houston over red light camera tickets.
Then on p. 14 of the newsletter is a feature on "Court ordered waiver of surcharges for indigent defensants," detailing precisely what judges need to do to waive Driver Responsibility Surcharges under a statute passed in 2009, including a model order for judges to use. (Confusingly, but importantly, there is also an administrative indigence program at DPS through which surcharges may be reduced, but not entirely waived.) If you're a Texas judge or defense attorney who deals with surcharges, IMO it'd border on legal malpractice not to familiarize yourself with the program and to help indigent defendants avail themselves of it.
Grits won't besmirch this beautiful afternoon by spending time summarizing each of these items but anyone interested in those particular topics will want to read the related articles.
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