The district attorney sets the application fee and may waive or reduce it for just cause; a person cannot be denied pretrial diversion solely for inability to pay.
(a) An offender may be assessed a nonrefundable application fee when the offender is approved for the pretrial diversion program. The amount of the assessment for participation in the program shall be in addition to any court costs or fees and assessments for the crime victim’s compensation fund, Department of Forensic Sciences assessments, drug, alcohol, or anger management treatment required by law, and any costs of supervision, treatment, and restitution for which the offender may be responsible. A schedule of payments for any of these fees may be established by the district attorney. (b) The amount of the application fee shall be established by the district attorney. (c) The application fee shall be allocated and paid to the following offices or entities as follows: (1) Ten percent shall be allocated to the appropriate circuit or district court clerk in which the case originates to the clerk’s fund as provided by law and shall be available for use, at the discretion of the clerk, to support the office of the clerk. (2) Five percent shall be allocated to Limestone County Children’s Advocacy Center for the use of the center, at the discretion of the head of the center, for law enforcement purposes. If the Limestone County Children’s Advocacy Center should be closed, this allocation shall revert to the Limestone County District Attorney’s Solicitor’s Fund. (3) Five percent shall be allocated to the Limestone County Family Resource Center for the use of the center, at the discretion of the head of the center, for law enforcement purposes. If the Limestone County Family Resource Center should be closed, this allocation shall revert to the Limestone County District Attorney’s Solicitor’s Fund. (4) The remainder of the application fees shall be allocated to the Limestone County District Attorney’s Solicitor’s Fund and shall be available, at the discretion of the district attorney, for any law enforcement purpose. (d) An applicant offender may not be denied access into the pretrial diversion program based solely on the offender’s inability to pay the applicationfee. Application fees may be waived or reduced, for just cause, including indigency of the offender, at the discretion of the district attorney. Any determination of the indigency of the offender for purposes of program fee mitigation shall be made by the district attorney but such mitigation shall be done only upon a determination by the district attorney that there is no reasonable likelihood within the reasonably foreseeable future that the offender will have the ability to pay the application fee.