Putnam Increases Court Filing Fees

Putnam County will raise its court filing fees for general sessions civil cases and traffic cases starting September 1.

Circuit Court Clerk Jennifer Wilkerson said the change came about after the county compared its filing fees with several other nearby counties and discovered they are charging the least by a wide margin. Wilkerson said their new fees will be much closer to average when compared with other county courts.

“This will help offset some of the costs that we have that we’ve incurred for some time,” Wilkerson said. “And Putnam County has sort of taken the brunt and continued to meet the need in the county with the justice center and the activities that go on here. This will help offset some of that.”

Wilkerson said these fees had not changed since 2012, but recent growth in the county and within the justice center made the increase necessary. She said they anticipate the change to bring in some $250,000 in additional revenue.

“When you have all this influx and you have things that are happening, it increases the volume and the use of the justice center,” Wilkerson said. “You have to adjust the fees and things of that nature to be able to keep up.”

Wilkerson said increase should not have a severe impact on citizens as they already allow people who receive these fees to use payment plans if they need to.

“We can just adjust the payment plan based off of their ability to pay,” Wilkerson said. “So it may extend a few weeks that they’re making a payment, but most likely it will be very minimal impact.”

The filing fee for general sessions civil cases will go from $87.50 to $138.50 and traffic cases will go from $167.00 to $199.00.

“It won’t affect our property owners,” Wilkerson said. “It’s not a tax increase. It’s just simply a user fee, so it will only affect those folks who commit those offenses.”