Ohio Code 120.36 – Application fee – assessment – nonpayment – disposition – annual report
(A)(1) Subject to division (A)(2), (3), (4), (5), or (6) of this section, if a person who is a defendant in a criminal case or a party in a case in juvenile court requests or is provided a state public defender, a county or joint county public defender, or any other counsel appointed by the court, the court in which the criminal case is initially filed or the juvenile court, whichever is applicable, shall assess, unless the application fee is waived or reduced, a non-refundable application fee of twenty-five dollars.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 120.36
- Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Child: includes child by adoption. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- imprisonment: means being imprisoned under a sentence imposed for an offense or serving a term of imprisonment, prison term, jail term, term of local incarceration, or other term under a sentence imposed for an offense in an institution under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction, a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, a minimum security jail, a community-based correctional facility, or another facility described or referred to in section 2929. See Ohio Code 1.05
- Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Probate: Proving a will
- Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
- Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
The court shall direct the person to pay the application fee to the clerk of court. The person shall pay the application fee to the clerk of court at the time the person files a financial disclosure form with the court, a state public defender, a county or joint county public defender, or any other counsel appointed by the court or within seven days of that date. If the person does not pay the application fee within that seven-day period, the court shall assess the application fee at sentencing or at the final disposition of the case.
(2) For purposes of this section, a criminal case includes any case involving a violation of any provision of the Revised Code or of an ordinance of a municipal corporation for which the potential penalty includes loss of liberty and includes any contempt proceeding in which a court may impose a term of imprisonment.
(3) In a juvenile court proceeding, the court shall not assess the application fee against a child if the court appoints a guardian ad litem for the child or the court appoints an attorney to represent the child at the request of a guardian ad litem.
(4) The court shall not assess an application fee for a postconviction proceeding or when the defendant files an appeal.
(5)(a) Except when the court assesses an application fee pursuant to division (A)(5)(b) of this section, the court shall assess an application fee when a person is charged with a violation of a community control sanction or a violation of a post-release control sanction.
(b) If a charge of violating a community control sanction or post-release control sanction described in division (A)(5)(a) of this section results in a person also being charged with violating any provision of the Revised Code or an ordinance of a municipal corporation, the court shall only assess an application fee for the case that results from the additional charge.
(6) If a case is transferred from one court to another court and the person failed to pay the application fee to the court that initially assessed the application fee, the court that initially assessed the fee shall remove the assessment, and the court to which the case was transferred shall assess the application fee.
(7) The court shall assess an application fee pursuant to this section one time per case. For purposes of assessing the application fee, a case means one complete proceeding or trial held in one court for a person on an indictment, information, complaint, petition, citation, writ, motion, or other document initiating a case that arises out of a single incident or a series of related incidents, or when one individual is charged with two or more offenses that the court handles simultaneously. The court may waive or reduce the fee for a specific person in a specific case upon a finding that the person lacks financial resources that are sufficient to pay the fee or that payment of the fee would result in an undue hardship.
(B) No court, state public defender, county or joint county public defender, or other counsel appointed by the court shall deny a person the assistance of counsel solely due to the person’s failure to pay the application fee assessed pursuant to division (A) of this section. A person’s present inability, failure, or refusal to pay the application fee shall not disqualify that person from legal representation.
(C) The application fee assessed pursuant to division (A) of this section is separate from and in addition to any other amount assessed against a person who is found to be able to contribute toward the cost of the person’s legal representation pursuant to division (D) of section 2941.51 of the Revised Code.
(D) The clerk of the court that assessed the fees shall forward all application fees collected pursuant to this section to the county treasurer for deposit in the county treasury. The county shall retain eighty per cent of the application fees so collected to offset the costs of providing legal representation to indigent persons. Not later than the last day of each month, the county auditor shall remit twenty per cent of the application fees so collected in the previous month to the state public defender. The state public defender shall deposit the remitted fees into the state treasury to the credit of the client payment fund created pursuant to division (B)(5) of section 120.04 of the Revised Code. The state public defender may use that money in accordance with that section.
(E) On or before the twentieth day of each month beginning in February of the year 2007, each clerk of court shall provide to the state public defender a report including all of the following:
(1) The number of persons in the previous month who requested or were provided a state public defender, county or joint county public defender, or other counsel appointed by the court;
(2) The number of persons in the previous month for whom the court waived the application fee pursuant to division (A) of this section;
(3) The dollar value of the application fees assessed pursuant to division (A) of this section in the previous month;
(4) The amount of assessed application fees collected in the previous month;
(5) The balance of unpaid assessed application fees at the open and close of the previous month.
(F) As used in this section:
(1) “Clerk of court” means the clerk of the court of common pleas of the county, the clerk of the juvenile court of the county, the clerk of the domestic relations division of the court of common pleas of the county, the clerk of the probate court of the county, the clerk of a municipal court in the county, the clerk of a county-operated municipal court, or the clerk of a county court in the county, whichever is applicable.
(2) “County-operated municipal court” has the same meaning as in section 1901.03 of the Revised Code.