(a) (1) There is hereby established the Trial Court Trust Fund, the proceeds of which shall be apportioned for the purposes authorized in this section, including apportionment to the trial courts to fund trial court operations, as defined in Section 77003.

(2) The apportionment payments shall be made by the Controller. The final payment from the Trial Court Trust Fund for each fiscal year shall be made on or before August 31 of the subsequent fiscal year.

(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in order to promote statewide efficiency, the Judicial Council may authorize the direct payment or reimbursement or both of actual costs from the Trial Court Trust Fund or the State Trial Court Improvement and Modernization Fund to fund the costs of operating one or more trial courts upon the authorization of the participating courts. These paid or reimbursed costs may be for services provided to the court or courts by the Administrative Office of the Courts or payment for services or property of any kind contracted for by the court or courts or on behalf of the courts by the Administrative Office of the Courts. The amount of appropriations from the State Trial Court Improvement and Modernization Fund under this subdivision may not exceed 20 percent of the amount deposited in the State Trial Court Improvement and Modernization Fund pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 77205. The direct payment or reimbursement of costs from the Trial Court Trust Fund may be supported by the reduction of a participating court’s allocation from the Trial Court Trust Fund to the extent that the court’s expenditures for the program are reduced and the court is supported by the expenditure. The Judicial Council shall provide the affected trial courts with quarterly reports on expenditures from the Trial Court Trust Fund incurred as authorized by this subdivision. The Judicial Council shall establish procedures to provide for the administration of this paragraph in a way that promotes the effective, efficient, reliable, and accountable operation of the trial courts.

(B) As used in subparagraph (A), the term “costs of operating one or more trial courts” includes any expenses related to operation of the court or performance of its functions, including, but not limited to, statewide administrative and information technology infrastructure supporting the courts. The term “costs of operating one or more trial courts” is not restricted to items considered “court operations” pursuant to Section 77003, but is subject to policies, procedures, and criteria established by the Judicial Council, and may not include an item that is a cost that must otherwise be paid by the county or city and county in which the court is located.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the fees listed in subdivision (c) shall all be deposited upon collection in a special account in the county treasury, and transmitted monthly to the State Treasury for deposit in the Trial Court Trust Fund.

(c) (1) Except as specified in subdivision (d), this section applies to all fees collected on or before December 31, 2005, pursuant to Sections 631.3, 116.230, and 403.060 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Sections 26820.4, 26823, 26826, 26826.01, 26827, 26827.4, 26830, 26832.1, 26833.1, 26835.1, 26836.1, 26837.1, 26838, 26850.1, 26851.1, 26852.1, 26853.1, 26855.4, 26862, 68086, 72055, 72056, 72056.01, and 72060.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, except as specified in subdivision (d) of this section and subdivision (a) of Section 68085.7, this section applies to all fees and fines collected on or before December 31, 2005, pursuant to Sections 116.390, 116.570, 116.760, 116.860, 177.5, 491.150, 704.750, 708.160, 724.100, 1134, 1161.2, and 1218 of the Code of Civil Procedure, Sections 26824, 26828, 26829, 26834, and 72059 of the Government Code, and subdivisions (b) and (c) of § 166 of the Penal Code.

(3) If any of the fees provided for in this subdivision are partially waived by court order, and the fee is to be divided between the Trial Court Trust Fund and any other fund, the amount of the partial waiver shall be deducted from the amount to be distributed to each fund in the same proportion as the amount of each distribution bears to the total amount of the fee.

(d) This section does not apply to that portion of a filing fee collected pursuant to Section 26820.4, 26826, 26827, 72055, or 72056 that is allocated for dispute resolution pursuant to § 470.3 of the Business and Professions Code, the county law library pursuant to § 6320 of the Business and Professions Code, the Judges’ Retirement Fund pursuant to Section 26822.3, automated recordkeeping or conversion to micrographics pursuant to Sections 26863 and 68090.7, and courthouse financing pursuant to Section 70625. This section also does not apply to fees collected pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (c) of Section 27361.

(e) This section applies to all payments required to be made to the State Treasury by any county or city and county pursuant to Section 77201, 77201.1, or 77205.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no agency may take action to change the amounts allocated to any of the funds described in subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (d).

(g) The Judicial Council shall reimburse the Controller for the actual administrative costs that will be incurred under this section. Costs reimbursed under this section shall be determined on an annual basis in consultation with the Judicial Council.

(h) Any amounts required to be transmitted by a county or city and county to the state pursuant to this section shall be remitted to the State Treasury no later than 45 days after the end of the month in which the fees were collected. This remittance shall be accompanied by a remittance advice identifying the collection month and the appropriate account in the Trial Court Trust Fund to which it is to be deposited. Any remittance that is not made by the county or city and county in accordance with this section shall be considered delinquent, and subject to the interest and penalties specified in this section.

(i) Upon receipt of any delinquent payment required pursuant to this section, the Controller shall do the following:

(1) Calculate interest on the delinquent payment by multiplying the amount of the delinquent payment at a daily rate equivalent to the rate of return of money deposited in the Local Agency Investment Fund pursuant to Section 16429.1 from the date the payment was originally due to either 30 days after the date of the issuance by the Controller of the final audit report concerning the failure to pay or the date of payment by the entity responsible for the delinquent payment, whichever comes first.

(2) Calculate a penalty at a daily rate equivalent to 1¹/₂ percent per month from the date 30 days after the date of the issuance by the Controller of the final audit report concerning the failure to pay.

(j) (1) Interest or penalty amounts calculated pursuant to subdivision (i) shall be paid by the county, city and county, or court to the Trial Court Trust Fund no later than 45 days after the end of the month in which the interest or penalty was calculated. Payment shall be made by the entity responsible for the error or other action that caused the failure to pay, as determined by the Controller in notice given to that party by the Controller.

(2) Notwithstanding Section 77009, any interest or penalty on a delinquent payment that a court is required to make pursuant to this section and Section 24353 shall be paid from the Trial Court Operations Fund for that court.

(3) The Controller may permit a county, city and county, or court to pay the interest or penalty amounts according to a payment schedule in the event of a large interest or penalty amount that causes a hardship to the paying entity.

(4) The party responsible for the error or other action that caused the failure to pay may include, but is not limited to, the party that collected the funds who is not the party responsible for remitting the funds to the Trial Court Trust Fund, if the collecting party failed or delayed in providing the remitting party with sufficient information needed by the remitting party to distribute the funds.

(k) The Trial Court Trust Fund shall be invested in the Surplus Money Investment Fund and all interest earned shall be allocated to the Trial Court Trust Fund quarterly and shall be allocated among the courts in accordance with the requirements of subdivision (a).

(l) It is the intent of the Legislature that the revenues required to be deposited into the Trial Court Trust Fund be remitted as soon after collection by the courts as possible.

(m) Except for subdivisions (a) and (k), this section does not apply to fees and fines that are listed in subdivision (a) of Section 68085.1 that are collected on or after January 1, 2006.

(n) The changes made to subdivisions (i) and (j) of this section by Chapter 435 of the Statutes of 2007 apply to all delinquent payments for which no final audit has been issued by the Controller prior to January 1, 2008.

(o) The Judicial Council shall not expend any of these funds on the system known as the Court Case Management System without consent from the Legislature, except for the maintenance and operation of Court Case Management System Version 2 and Version 3.

(p) This section or any other provision of law shall not be construed to authorize the Judicial Council to redirect funds from the Trial Court Trust Fund for any purpose other than for allocation to trial courts or as otherwise specifically appropriated by statute.

(q) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2013.

(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 57, Sec. 3. (AB 199) Effective June 30, 2022.)