In 2012, six plaintiffs from Tarrant County sued the local district court clerk for charging them court fees even after they filed affidavits of their indigent status — also known as "pauper petitions" — when they filed for divorce. But the clerk says final divorce decrees require that each party pay its share of the court costs.
In a ruling described as a blow to poor Texans, an appeals court says a trial court lacked jurisdiction when Tarrant County District Clerk Tom Wilder was ordered to stop collecting court fees from people who can't afford an attorney.
The ruling by the 2nd Court of Appeals, issued last week, reverses a lower court ruling that ordered Wilder to stop collecting court costs from poor litigants although they had filed uncontested indigency affidavits.
In its 2-1 ruling, the appeals court said the judgments should have come from the family courts where the divorces were handled.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Justice Jefferson seems to have been taken seriously.
Of course, the whole charade is an outrage, and it is no surprise that Wallace Jefferson, long a friend of access to justice, and one who understands the role of courts as leaders and as institutions responsible for providing access, stepped up to the plate here.
The role that the retired Chief is playing here should be a powerful model for other chiefs and judicial leaders who want to continue to play a role in access to justice. High visibility cases dealing with matters of principle are ideal for such roles. Moreover public speaking and leadership work with bar, legislature, and the public are just as important, particularly as we gear up to make the 100% access Resolution campaign a movement, one that will need messengers who engender the highest trust. Lets talk about how to support such leaders as they consider these roles.
The Texas ATJ Commission has a full summary of the case here. Lots more materials here, on the website of Lee DiFilippo's Holistic Law Center. Good work all around.
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Of all the places to pick this kind of fight, the clerk did it in divorce? The combination of Kras, Ortwein, and Boddie make pretty clear that divorce is one of the few areas that the _federal_ Constitution has something to say about court fees.