The Hidden Cost Of Justice

Y'know what annoys me most?
Hidden taxes. Especially hidden taxes that actually hamper the proceedings of justice.

In May 2010, our soon-to-be-former governor Sonny Perdue signed HB 1055. This seemingly innocuous bill does one thing; it raises the fees on licenses available throughout the whole of GA. Pest control licenses, building licenses, articles of incorporation - they all get their fees increased. Most people would say "So what? Every state is going through a crunch. They want to increase their revenue any which way possible."

Ah, but it's the court fees that are the injustice. They've raised all the court fees here in Georgia. Formerly, to file a civil case in the Superior or State Courts of Georgia, you shelled out $87.50. The price now? $204.00.

Yes, you read that correctly. $204.00

To file in Magistrate's Court? In Gwinnett, it's now $100.00.
Need to have the Sheriff serve some papers? $50.00
Get an uncertified copy of something from the Clerk? Gone from $0.25 to $0.50. per page.

"Oh, OK." you say. "It's just higher fees, though. Yeah, I'm going to pay through the nose, but how does that hinder justice?" Well, let me ask you. Can you ever think of a reason where you might need to file an appeal? When you file an appeal in state appeals court or the Georgia Supreme Court, your appeal will often be approximately 1-2000 pages long and consists mainly of copies of the previous record. Formerly, it cost $1.50/page to copy a page from the previous record, thus causing your appeal to approximately cost $1500-3000. The cost to copy a page from the record has gone to $10/page. Yes, $10/page. That means the documentation for your appeal alone will cost you approximately $10000-20000.

Think about that for a second. Think about all the miscarriages of justice that have required appeals. Think about the appeals necessary to challenge a bad law. Think about all the items

The lawyers aren't going to pay this for you. They have no choice but to pass on the fees to the consumer. Going it alone won't help as the fees will still be there and you will still have to pay them BEFORE getting your day in court. And the majority of this money, no matter if it's a state, county, or municipal court, is going to the STATE government. As revenue.

Something to think about.

Things I Have Done 001

Things I have done today:

# Cleared out the old LJ after putting it to PDF via LJBook. By clear, I mean DELETE DELETE DELETE. Very Cyberman. I'm done with that identity; I wish to create new things. I can't do that with the old snark and political comm baggage.

# I'm alone at work tonight. MY usual co-worker for my shift (now dubbed CW1) called in. The person from the other 3rd shift who works on Wednesday (now dubbed OCW1) is on vacation. Thus, it is me, myself, and I. Cleared out the current registrations for new machines. Updated all the niggling little maintenance tasks I have to do here. Got done with the usual work stuff at about 0200.

# OK, 5BX exercises. The aim is Chart 03, Level B, which is appropriate for my age group. I'm starting at Chart 01, Level D-. Following are exercise number, amount of exercise required, time limit given, and my actual time.
Exercise 01 / 2 / 2 min / 21 sec
Exercise 02 / 3 / 1 min / 41 sec
Exercise 03 / 4 / 1 min / 29 sec
Exercise 04 / 2 / 1 min / 17 sec
Exercise 05 / 100 / 6 min / 3 min, 4 sec

I perform the first four exercises again as a cool-down. Follow that with a full glass of water. Follow that with a full cup of broth.

# My news break-down and commentary

Murkowski becomes 1st write-in senator since '54: I really think this is a blow to the Tea Party. Joe Miller had the backing of Sarah Palin in her home state...and the Alaskans refused to go for the crazy. I don't think the shady use of militia members as bodyguards helped Miller very much.

Despite a deluge of complaints over intrusive pat-downs and revealing airport scans, the government is betting Americans would rather fly safe than untouched. "I'm not going to change those policies," the TSA chief John Pistole declared Wednesday. Well, that pretty much says it all. Unfortunately for our TSA chairman, it looks like federal legislators want to get in on the act.

The GA PSC is corrupt. In other news, water is wet.

A judge refused Wednesday to stop construction of a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro, TN that was opposed by some local residents who tried to argue that there was a conspiracy by Muslims to impose extremist law on the United States. Clearly, the judge is in league with the Taliban. Seriously, did they think this would get past the courts? This is as stupid as the arguments of pro-Prop 8 people.

Palin tells ABC she can beat Obama in 2012. Good luck with that. I give Gringrich a better chance than the Mama Grizzly.

Tea Party candidate elected to the House from Maryland is pissed he doesn't get instant free health care and has to wait 30 days for it to kick in. Better yet? This guy is a bonafide physician. He's pissed because he has to wait 30 DAYS? C'mon on. Clearly he's not familiar with corporate America, where the usual run is 30-90.