Ledger v. City of St. Petersburg

135 So.3d 496 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014);
State v. Jachimski, 162 So. 3d 302 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015)

For more than five years, indigent litigants in the Florida Sixth Judicial Circuit were denied access to appellate courts for one reason: they could not afford to pay the $400 filing fee. When SLC attempted to file appeals with the circuit court on behalf of homeless individuals, our clients had the courthouse doors slammed in their face due to an administrative order that prohibited filing fee waivers for indigent litigants. SLC challenged the administrative order. The appellate court ordered the circuit court to grant indigent filing fee waivers to all of our clients. In two separate decisions, the 2d DCA held that indigent litigants in civil and criminal cases have a clear legal right to filing fee waivers under Florida law and ordered the judges to grant the fee waivers. SLC’s advocacy resulted in the repeal of the administrative order that had unlawfully denied access to justice for thousands of indigent litigants in Pinellas and Pasco Counties.