Bill Text: NJ A3774 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Lowers standard of evidence needed to waive public defender application fee and increases fee limit.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-16 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [A3774 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-A3774-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman RONALD S. DANCER
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Lowers standard of evidence needed to waive public defender application fee and increases fee limit.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act reducing standard of evidence to waive the application fee for municipal public defenders and increasing the limit on the fee, and amending P.L.1997, c.256.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 17 of P.L.1997, c.256 (C.2B:24-17) is amended to read as follows:
17. a. A municipality may require by ordinance a person applying for representation by a municipal public defender or court approved counsel to pay an application fee of not more than [$200.00] $250, but only in an amount necessary to pay the costs of municipal public defender services. In accordance with guidelines promulgated by the Supreme Court, the municipal court may waive any required application fee, in whole or in part, only if the court determines, in its discretion, upon a [clear and convincing] showing by a preponderance of the evidence by the applicant that the application fee represents an unreasonable burden on the person seeking representation. The municipal court may permit a person to pay the application fee over a specific period of time not to exceed four months.
b. Funds collected pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be deposited in a dedicated fund administered by the chief financial officer of the municipality or in the case of a joint municipal court in a manner agreed to by the constituent municipalities. Such funds shall be used exclusively to meet the costs incurred in providing the services of a municipal public defender including, when required, expert and lay investigation and testimony.
c. Beginning in 1999, if it is determined by the Division of Local Government Services during its annual review of a municipal budget that the amount of money in a dedicated fund established pursuant to this section exceeds by more than 25% the amount which the municipality expended during the prior year providing the services of a municipal public defender, the amount in excess of the amount expended shall be forwarded to the Criminal Disposition and Review Collection Fund administered by Victims of Crime Compensation [Board] Office.
(cf: P.L.1997, c.256, s.17)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
The bill lowers the standard of evidence needed by an applicant to prove the application fee would be an unreasonable burden. If an applicant can show by a preponderance of the evidence that the application fee represents an unreasonable burden, the municipal court may wave the fee
This bill also increases the limit on the application fee a municipality may charge a person applying for representation by a municipal public defender to $250. The increase ensures that municipalities are able to meet growing costs associated with providing a municipal public defender.
While the Office of the Public Defender is funded by the State and provides services for New Jersey's Supreme Court and Superior Court, municipal courts are required to provide their own representation to indigent defendants without support from State funds. When municipalities were first required to provide public defenders for their courts, they were permitted to charge an application fee to pay for the costs of the service. The initial $200 limit that a municipality could charge was set in 1997 and has not been updated since.
The bill also updates the agency name of the Victims of Crime Compensation Office pursuant to 40 N.J.R. 913(a).
