GPS AND PHOTO VERIFICATION SERVICE FEES

Senate Bill 226

Sponsor:  Sen. Rick Jones

House Committee:  Judiciary

Senate Committee:  Judiciary

Complete to 3-19-18

SUMMARY:

Senate Bill 226 would amend the Revised Judicature Act (RJA) to add fees for process or paper service of global positioning service (GPS) verification and photo verification requested by a plaintiff.

The RJA prescribes a schedule of fees for process or papers served out of a court by a person authorized under the act or Michigan Supreme Court rules to serve process.

The bill would add the following two fees:

·         For each GPS verification requested by the plaintiff, $5.

·         For each photo verification requested by the plaintiff, $5.

The bill also would make several editorial changes to remove outdated language and to update other fees to reflect current fee amounts. When new fees were enacted in 2012, the legislation called for a $1 increase per year on October 1 in 2013, 2014, and 2015, to increase the fees by a total of $3. The updated figures throughout the bill reflect those increases.

The bill would take effect 90 days after being enacted.

MCL 600.2559

FISCAL IMPACT:

This bill would result in increased fee revenues for local law enforcement agencies, by allowing agencies to charge $5.00 for each global positioning service verification and photo verification requested by a plaintiff. These fees would be utilized to defray the administrative costs of processing the information requests.

                                                                                        Legislative Analyst:   Emily S. Smith

                                                                                                Fiscal Analyst:   Kent Dell

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.