Filing Fees

So already by post two, I'm tackling life's most interesting topics... such as... court filing fees!! Woo hoo!! Ok, so actually these are filing fees with the probation department in Santa Clara County. Before anyone asks, no, I'm not on probation. But I have learned through my work at the Stanford Community Law Clinic that Santa Clara County charges $120 to process record clearances, and basically won't waive that fee unless you are on some kind of government benefits program. I spoke to one person who actually said, "Even if you were homeless, we wouldn't waive it."

The reason this matters is that record clearance (also called expungement) is an important step for some people in turning their lives around. It can make it easier to get a job or a professional license, and it has a big psychological impact for some people to get that "stamp of approval" showing that they've moved on. (To be clear, law enforcement still knows and it still stays on your official record, but with an added line below a conviction and sentence that says "expunged.")

I honestly wasn't a huge fan of the idea of doing this work before coming to clinic, mostly because I was more interested in helping people who hadn't committed crimes than those who had. But having now seen some of the people who come in to get help with this process, I am amazed and highly impressed by many of them. Often they have gone through drug treatment programs, gotten involved with a church or some other religious institution, gone back to school, and/or become active members of their community. I think it's a pretty self-selective group, because the expungement process isn't one you are required to go through in any way. In other words, to decide that you want to come into our office, and then take on a process that can involve writing your own declaration (describing where you've been and where you're headed), and maybe even going through a court hearing, you have to be a pretty proactive person.

So what's unfortunate is that in some cases, the only thing that holds people back is the $120 filing fee. In neighboring San Mateo County (where we also do this work), you can file a fee waiver along with your expungement petition. But in Santa Clara, unless you can show you are on government benefits, they won't waive it. What makes this particularly frustrating is that this refusal to grant a fee waiver based on any other factors (such as income) is explicitly contradictory to the statute, which requires that a petitioner's "ability to pay" be considered and that it "shall not be a prerequisite to a person's eligibility."

So I am on a bit of a mission now to get this policy changed in Santa Clara County. The county Board of Supervisors has ultimate authority to set the fee that is currently being charged (although they've apparently delegated that authority to Probation), and the court has the authority to consider an applicant's ability to pay, so it seems that one of those two bodies should be able to effect a change here.

I guess we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted, as it were.