Florida Senate: Make non-efilers in courts pay a 3.5% surcharge?

Cross-posted at Gavel to Gavel blog

 I mentioned last week that the Florida Senate was going to meet tomorrow (October 18) and that the agenda included an item entitled

Presentations on issues related to electronic filing of court documents

I came across a (possibly) related piece of legislation: SB 410 of 2012. The bill contains two provisions:

(1) A litigant who is required to electronically file a court or other legal document in a court of this state, in the Division of Administrative Hearings, or in the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims shall pay a surcharge in addition to any other cost incurred if the litigant files a paper document instead of electronically filing the document. The surcharge shall equal 3.5 percent of the cost of filing the document electronically. (2) This section does not apply to a litigant who is indigent as determined by s. 27.52, Florida Statutes.

The obvious question is "who is required to electronically file a court or other legal document"? SB 170 of 2011, signed into law in June, requires prosecutors and public defenders to e-file documents with the clerk of court and report back on March 1, 2012 on the implementation of the program to the legislature (click here for prior posts). A 2009 statute (SB 1718) required the clerks of court to implement an electronic filing process by March 1, 2010. Live coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee e-filing presentation can be found here.