Civil Indigent Status - Florida

The law affects every aspect of life. Every aspect – think about it. I can't think of a single act, scenario, or situation that does not have a set of laws surrounding it. Birth, death, taxes, ownership, marriage, divorce, business, real estate, and on and on. I can't think of one single thing that doesn't have laws to go with it. It's a modern world, and we live by laws. Its fine, it is our system, it mostly works. Better to live by laws, than by force or chaos.

But when it costs money to use the law and the price is too high for some, there is a problem. The filing fee for a Florida divorce is $408. Considering that someone earning minimum wage @ $7.25 per hour, earns a gross weekly wage of $290. Filing for divorce might require robbing poor old Peter. If that minimum wage job is meant to support more than one person, Peter and others must be robbed.

You might say, well no one has to get a divorce – its not a necessity. A couple could wait to divorce until money was not such a problem. That may be true, but why should someone have to put their life on hold for lack of a filing fee? And although divorce is not a necessity it is usually the most practical thing to do once it becomes clear that the marriage is not going to ever work. Couples who separate and do not divorce create a whole new set of problems for themselves. What if the woman has a child from the next relationship, but is still married to the first one? What if one or the other wants to remarry and then has lost track of their spouse?

There is a solution to the unreasonably high cost of filing fees and court costs. Consumers can file a form called – Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status. I don't know exactly why it is kept such a secret. I suspect that the court clerks are told that they must provide consumers with the form for indigent status if they ask for it; but are also told not to volunteer the form or the information. A search for this form and various associated search strings used to find it are some of the most frequent key words that land people on our association site – The Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers – www.faldp.org.

Civil Indigent Status applies to other types of law suits besides family law, including small claims, general civil, and landlord/tenant. There is a similar indigent application form for a criminal case to request a public defender. In civil law suits, if a consumer has an income less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines; and minimal assets, he, is likely eligible for civil indigent status. Indigent status allows the clerks of court to waive filing fees and court costs. The consumer would only have to pay a one time $25.00 administrative fee. The following pertinent part of the Florida Statutes states which court costs are waived:

57.081 Costs; right to proceed where prepayment of costs and payment of filing fees waived.—

(1) Any indigent person, ... in any judicial or administrative agency proceeding or who initiates such proceeding shall receive the services of the courts, sheriffs, and clerks, with respect to such proceedings, despite his or her present inability to pay for these services. Such services are limited to filing fees; service of process; certified copies of orders or final judgments; a single photocopy of any court pleading, record, or instrument filed with the clerk; examining fees; mediation services and fees; private court-appointed counsel fees; subpoena fees and services; service charges for collecting and disbursing funds; and any other cost or service arising out of pending litigation. ... A party who has obtained a certification of indigence pursuant to s. 27.52 or s. 57.082 with respect to a proceeding is not required to prepay costs to a court, clerk, or sheriff and is not required to pay filing fees or charges for issuance of a summons.

The process and guidelines are further explained in Florida Statute 57.082 - Determination of Civil Indigent Status. The determination of indigent status is made by the clerk of court. If a consumer believes he was wrongfully denied indigent status, he may appeal to the judge.

The U.S. Supreme Court opinion, Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971), delivered by Justice Harlan, states: “At its core, the right to due process reflects a fundamental value in our American constitutional system. Our understanding of that value is the basis upon which we have resolved this case. Perhaps no characteristic of an organized and cohesive society is more fundamental than its erection and enforcement of a system of rules defining the various rights and duties of its members, enabling them to govern their affairs and definitively settle their differences in an orderly, predictable manner. Without such a "legal system," social organization and cohesion are virtually impossible; with the ability to seek regularized resolution of conflicts, individuals are capable of interdependent action that enables them to strive for achievements without the anxieties that would beset them in a disorganized society. Put more succinctly, it is this injection of the rule of law that allows society to reap the benefits of rejecting what political theorists call the "state of nature."

The court found that it was an unconstitutional denial of due process for the court to prohibit consumers from divorcing due to the high cost of filing fees and court costs. Only the government is authorized to divorce couples, there is no other way to get divorced than to go through the court system. And because the government has a monopoly on granting divorces, the court must allow indigent people to divorce. The court recognized divorce as a fundamental right, similar to the right to marry.

If you are a consumer please let others know about this process. If you are a legal document preparer please inform your customers who are struggling to pay for services. Whenever I am assisting a customer with their legal documents, and they are struggling to pay document preparation fees, I make sure to include the Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status. In this economy, a little financial help may help someone more than you can imagine.