Also known as: filing fees · court filing fee
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An amount of money that a party must pay to a court clerk to commence a civil action or other proceeding. Statutes and court rules commonly authorize assessment of filing fees along with related litigation expenses such as attorney fees and genetic testing costs. Courts may direct payment of awarded fees directly to counsel and permit counsel to enforce the award in the attorney's own name.
Felicity French files a parentage action against the alleged father. The court adjudicates parentage and orders the father to pay Felicity's filing fees along with genetic testing costs and reasonable attorney fees. The court directs that the attorney fees be paid directly to Felicity's lawyer, who then enforces the order in her own name after the father refuses payment.
Francois Fortier moves to dismiss his wife's divorce petition on the ground that she failed to satisfy the state's one-year residency requirement. The wife responds that enforcement of the residency rule combined with the filing fee requirement would unconstitutionally delay her access to court. The court rejects the challenge and requires payment of the filing fee to proceed.
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Foxfire Biotech files a class action complaint in federal court against Allstate. Allstate moves to dismiss arguing that New York procedural limits on class actions control. The court holds that the federal rules govern and that the filing fee requirement does not convert the class mechanism into a substantive damages limitation.
Felix Franco, a prisoner with no assets, files a civil rights action and seeks in forma pauperis status. The court assesses an initial partial filing fee of twenty percent of his account balance and orders monthly payments of twenty percent of future deposits until the full filing fee is paid.
Faith Fitzgerald seeks to marry but cannot pay the required filing fee because of indigency. She challenges the fee as an unconstitutional barrier to the fundamental right to marry. The court strikes down the fee requirement as applied to her under the Due Process Clause.
Francisco Frost challenges a state voter identification law that requires payment of a filing fee to obtain a photo ID. He argues the fee imposes a severe burden on the right to vote for low-income citizens. The court upholds the requirement after finding the state's interests outweigh the burden.
Yes. In parentage proceedings the court may assess filing fees and direct that awarded attorney fees be paid directly to counsel. The attorney may then enforce the order in the attorney's own name.
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Yes. A filing fee that completely bars an indigent party from obtaining a divorce can violate due process when the state monopolizes the dissolution process. Courts have struck down such fees when no alternative means of access exists.
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Yes. A prisoner who proceeds in forma pauperis must still pay the full filing fee through an initial partial payment followed by monthly installments of twenty percent of account deposits until the fee is satisfied.
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Communication of a record to the filing office without tender of the required filing fee does not constitute filing under the UCC. The filing office may refuse the record for that reason.
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…protected liberty. In Boddie v. Connecticut , 401 U. S. 371, the Court held that the State's legitimate purposes in collecting filing fees for divorce actions were insufficient under the Due Process Clause to deprive the indigent of access to the courts where that access was necessary to dissolve the marital relationship. In…