Sticker Shock to Appeal in Georgia, Part II -- The Case of Being "Two Days Late"
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by Andrew Agatston
I received a phone call from an attorney in Kansas City last week, who had read my previous blog post about the unconscionable law passed by the Georgia General Assembly this session raising the cost of transmitting each page of documentation needed for our appellate courts to decide an appeal by -- if you can believe it -- 667 percent.
I called it "sticker shock" that will "close the doors to justice." He called it a few other things. He is assisting a client who has a meritorious appeal in Georgia, and when he called the county clerk's office to see how much it would cost to transmit the record to the Georgia court of appeals, the clerk of court told him $3,100.00.
The clerk also told him that he just missed the $1.50 per page charge by two days. Two days late means his client, if she can afford the appeal, will be charged $10.00 per page. Needless to say, this lawyer in KC, Missouri was stunned.
To Georgia legislators, this new fee is seen as . . . well, I can't start to explain what our legislators were thinking. To this KC lawyer, it felt like an administrative scam, it felt like a rip-off. But most of all I think his concern was his client would not be able to afford to appeal due to, in his words, his client being charged an amount that has absolutely no logical relationship to what transmitting the record to the court of appeals actually costs.
When a clerk of court can e-mail all of the documents in the court record to a lawyer -- for free -- but now charge that same lawyer's client $3,100.00 to print out the exact documents, something has gone haywire. To highlight the absurdity, he and I talked about what it would cost for him to fly first class to Georgia, offer to take the clerk's file himself to Kinko's and copy every page, bring the court file back to the clerk, then go have a five-star dinner somewhere. Without knowing his hourly rate, I estimate he could not that at least two times for the $3,100.00, depending on the restaurant he chose.
Cost of filing an appeal in Georgia? Priceless! Or should I say, Shameless!
Best regards.
I received a phone call from an attorney in Kansas City last week, who had read my previous blog post about the unconscionable law passed by the Georgia General Assembly this session raising the cost of transmitting each page of documentation needed for our appellate courts to decide an appeal by -- if you can believe it -- 667 percent.
I called it "sticker shock" that will "close the doors to justice." He called it a few other things. He is assisting a client who has a meritorious appeal in Georgia, and when he called the county clerk's office to see how much it would cost to transmit the record to the Georgia court of appeals, the clerk of court told him $3,100.00.
The clerk also told him that he just missed the $1.50 per page charge by two days. Two days late means his client, if she can afford the appeal, will be charged $10.00 per page. Needless to say, this lawyer in KC, Missouri was stunned.
To Georgia legislators, this new fee is seen as . . . well, I can't start to explain what our legislators were thinking. To this KC lawyer, it felt like an administrative scam, it felt like a rip-off. But most of all I think his concern was his client would not be able to afford to appeal due to, in his words, his client being charged an amount that has absolutely no logical relationship to what transmitting the record to the court of appeals actually costs.
When a clerk of court can e-mail all of the documents in the court record to a lawyer -- for free -- but now charge that same lawyer's client $3,100.00 to print out the exact documents, something has gone haywire. To highlight the absurdity, he and I talked about what it would cost for him to fly first class to Georgia, offer to take the clerk's file himself to Kinko's and copy every page, bring the court file back to the clerk, then go have a five-star dinner somewhere. Without knowing his hourly rate, I estimate he could not that at least two times for the $3,100.00, depending on the restaurant he chose.
Cost of filing an appeal in Georgia? Priceless! Or should I say, Shameless!
Best regards.
Post a Comment