Courts must assess a solicitor’s fee in covered cases, and criminal cases meeting the stated triggers must collect it.
(a) In all juvenile, traffic, criminal, and quasi-criminal cases in the juvenile, district, circuit, and municipal courts in this state, a docket fee, hereinafter referred to as a solicitor’s fee, shall be assessed in each case. The fees, when collected, shall be distributed monthly as follows: Three dollars ($3) from each case to the circuit clerk of the county where collected to be used as provided by law for the operation of the office of the circuit clerk and the remainder of each fee to the solicitor’s fund or district attorney’s fund in the county where collected or to the fund in the county that may be hereafter prescribed by law for the solicitor’s fee. The solicitor’s fee shall be in an amount equal to all docket fees or court costs which are assessed upon an adjudication of guilt in a criminal case and distributed to the Fair Trial Tax Fund. (b) The solicitor’s fee shall be collected in all criminal cases where the defendant is adjudged guilty, a bond forfeited, a penalty imposed, or where there is issued any alias or capias warrant of arrest. The solicitor’s fee shall be in addition to and not in lieu of any other fees or costs. The solicitor’s fee shall not be waived or remitted unless the defendant proves to the reasonable satisfaction of the sentencing judge that the defendant is not capable of paying the fee within the reasonable foreseeable future. (c) The solicitor’s fee may be expended by the district attorney in the county where it is collected for the payment of any and all expenses incurred and for any legitimate law enforcement purpose. (d) The Legislature may continue to adopt future local laws or repeal existing local laws establishing a solicitor’s fee in criminal cases. This section shall not supersede existing local legislation on July 1, 2010, or enacted after July 1, 2010, in any county providing for a solicitor’s fee in criminal cases, and any county having local legislation establishing a solicitor’s fee shall collect the fee according to the local act until the local act is expressly repealed. Upon repeal of a local act establishing a solicitor’s fee, the county shall collect the fee pursuant to this section or pursuant to a local act enacted after July 1, 2010.