Florida’s court clerks say they can no longer handle all their court-related duties because of cutbacks mandated by the Legislature earlier this year, which have led to laying off almost 20 percent of their court staff and furloughs for many remaining on the payroll.
In an Aug. 17 letter to Chief Justice Peggy Quince, Duval County Clerk of Court Jim Fuller, president of the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers, asked her to pick the most important duties the courts want from the clerks, since they don’t have enough money or personnel to do them all.
Craig Waters, the Supreme Court’s public information officer, said Quince has referred the query to the chief circuit judges for a recommendation.
“At this moment in time, clerks must manage with the financial resources available regardless of the fact that they are inadequate to handle the volume of work and the statutory mandates,” Fuller wrote in his letter. “This unfortunate situation leaves only one option: work must be prioritized and handled in the order of priority.
“During the last (legislative) session, the court indicated that if it did not receive additional financial support from the Legislature, it may be forced to handle criminal cases first and then civil cases if time permits. Clerks do not want to presume that this is how you would like for us to prioritize our work; therefore, I respectfully request that as the head of the judicial branch of Florida government, you prioritize the work that is most important to the court so that clerks can begin making appropriate decisions when mandates cannot be met with the current financial resources.”
A press release from the clerks listed the cuts they have made:
• Elimination of about 1,300 staff positions, out of a total of 9,500 court-related clerk employees. Employees have been laid off in 52 of the 67 clerks’ offices around the state.
• A hiring freeze in all 67 clerks’ offices.
• A salary freeze in all but five small counties, which may join the pay restrictions by the end of the year. Also, 19 counties (Bay, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Flagler, Indian River, Leon, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Putnam, Santa Rosa, and Volusia), representing 28 percent of all clerks’ offices, have instituted pay cuts. Two others are considering pay cuts.
• 26 counties have instituted furloughs, affecting 3,476 employees or 36 percent of the clerks’ total statewide court-related workforce.
• Branch offices have been closed in 31 counties, reducing services 46 percent.
“Clerks throughout the state are now experiencing the unthinkable, not enough staff to send to courtrooms, not enough staff to complete appellate records timely, not enough staff to issue titles after foreclosure sales, and not enough people to answer the hundreds of thousands of telephone calls that are received by clerks statewide,” Fuller said in his letter.
The Legislature earlier this year significantly cut the clerks’ budget for their court-support operations, including transferring some of the fees they had collected and kept to fund court operations. According to the clerks’ association, those cuts totaled $90 million out of a budget of around $550 million.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News