What belongs to the courts should stay with the courts.

• Author: Diner, Jesse H.
• Position: Florida - President's page

It's great to be able to deliver good news about the court funding crisis for a change.

Last year, the legislature passed SB 2108, redirecting millions of dollars in filing fees to the courts' trust fund, and giving the legislature oversight of the clerks' court-related functions for budget purposes.

That signified a welcome positive change in attitude toward the courts. No longer is the judicial branch forced into the role of a street urchin with an outstretched hand begging for a few crumbs of the state's general revenue dollars.

Thank you, Florida Legislature, for giving us what we asked for: a trust fund so that court fees assessed and paid by Florida's citizens to access their court system are dedicated to the court system.

We asked for it. We got it. And, the good news is, it's working.

Now, legislature, please let us keep it.

Largely because of the foreclosure crisis--with more than 290,000 cases sitting in the system--foreclosure filing fees have created a surplus for the court system. But it's a temporary surplus.

Our job is to protect those trust fund dollars so the legislature doesn't raid it for other demanding needs.

As the legislature gears up for the 2010 session, I pledge to walk the halls of the Capitol, talk to legislators, and join with the concerned business community to declare in no uncertain terms: Please leave our trust fund alone.

Look around the country, and it's clear other solutions are not working. In California, courts shut down every Wednesday because they can't afford to keep the courts running every business day.

We, in Florida, can finally feel proud that we have a mechanism in place to ensure ongoing stabilized funding.

That's not to say we've fixed the court funding crisis.

We're still digging out of a backlog of civil cases that, according to a 2009 study by Coral Gables economist Tony Villamil and The Washington Economics Group, was more than 335,000 cases pending in Florida's courts. Villamil estimated at the current case disposition rates, it will take almost 18 months for the foreclosure cases currently in the courts to be disposed of.

When judges are struggling to deal with the foreclosure crisis, it takes precious judicial time away from other civil cases.

And backlogged courts are simply bad for business.

Money talks, so hear this loud and clear: The court funding crisis is costing Florida $17.4 billion in economic output each year, just from civil case delays.

Those civil case delays also...