Court clerks in Bienville, Claiborne, and Jackson must collect set filing fee amounts for a court reporter fund, with no deposit required in forma pauperis cases.
§973. Court reporters for the Second Judicial District A. The clerks for the district court for the parishes of Bienville, Claiborne, and Jackson, in addition to the filing fees authorized by law, shall collect from any person filing any type of civil suit or proceeding, intervention, third party demand, or reconventional demand in the respective parishes, the following amounts which shall be maintained by each of them in a separate fund designated as the court reporter's fund: (1) Money demands of five hundred dollars or less--five dollars in each suit. (2) Successions, tutorships, interdictions, emancipations, adoptions, mandamus suits, suits to cancel mortgages, and money claims of more than five hundred dollars but less than one thousand dollars--ten dollars in each suit. (3) All other suits or proceedings not enumerated above--twenty dollars in each suit. (4) No deposit shall be required in forma pauperis cases. Each of the said clerks shall maintain the court reporter's fund in a separate account and shall disburse therefrom as hereinafter provided. B. A district judge of the Second Judicial District may from time to time refix the filing fees to be collected for the court reporter's fund in the parish of his residence, but in no event shall such filing fees be in excess of the fees fixed in Subsection A herein. C. The appointment and compensation of court reporters in the Second Judicial District shall be as set out in R.S. 13:961, however, the funds created herein, with the approval of a district judge in the district, may be used to augment the salary and compensation of the court reporter or for the purchase of equipment or supplies necessary for the taking and transcribing of testimony. D. The clerks of each parish shall maintain a court reporter's fund separate and apart from the other clerks. Payments shall be made from each fund only to the court reporter appointed in said clerk's parish or for equipment or supplies to be used by that court reporter. E. Each clerk shall keep an account of the receipts and expenditures of such fund and shall annually make an itemized report of the receipts and disbursements of the fund to (a) the judges, (b) the bar association of the parish in which said clerk is elected, and (c) the court reporter. Each clerk shall receive as his fee for the management of the fund a sum equal to ten percent of the deposits to the fund which shall be paid by deducting said percentage at the end of each month from deposits made during the month. F. In the absence of the judge's regular secretary, each court reporter shall perform secretarial duties for the district judge appointing said court reporter. G. The compensation which the court reporters shall receive either from the funds created herein or from the police juries shall be in addition to other compensation which the court reporter may receive from other courts or sources for taking depositions or testimony. The court reporters shall not be prevented from serving any public or private person in any capacity for compensation. Added by Acts 1973, No. 59, §§1 to 13. Amended by Acts 1975, No. 415, §1; Acts 1979, No. 611, §1.