State Rep. Alex Andrade has filed HB 65 that prevents the Clerk of Courts from deducting any court fees, fines and other costs from the cash bonds paid by a friend or family member of a person arrested.
On WCOA, Andrade described the situation. “Let’s say that you commit a crime or you get arrested for a crime and you’ve got two priors. So you call me as your friend and you say, ‘Hey, can you, can you post my bail.’ I post the $5,000 to the clerk’s office, get you out of jail. I make sure that you show up to every court hearing till the end of your case. On your two prior cases you had some fines and fees that were, that were part of your judgment, say you owe $10,000 that you’ve never paid. The Clerk of Courts in Florida are allowed to keep all $5,000 in cash that I posted to bail you out of jail without ever giving me the opportunity to get it back.”
He continued, “In Florida right now, we have this system that allows Clerks of Courts to just deal other people’s monies for debt that they don’t owe. It’s been a problem for a long time, and I’m trying to fix it.”