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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Adair

DATE TYPED 3/18/05

HB

SHORT TITLE Metro & Magistrate Court Civil Action Amount

SB 813/aHBIC

ANALYST Ford

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

Minimal

See Narrative

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Attorney General (AGO)

Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HBIC Amendment

The House Business and Industry Committee amendment lowers the limit on claims that can be

heard in metropolitan and magistrate courts for civil actions from the proposed $25 thousand to

$15 thousand.

Synopsis of Original Bill

Senate Bill 813 expands the jurisdiction of metropolitan and magistrate courts for civil actions

from claims up to $10 thousand to claims up to $25 thousand.

Significant Issues

The bill will allow cases now heard in district courts to be heard in magistrate and metropolitan

courts. The AOC writes that there is no way of knowing how many cases presently filed in dis-

trict court seek damages of $25 thousand or less because plaintiffs are generally forbidden to

specify the amount of damages sought in their complaints. The AOC also writes, “Recent his-

Senate Bill 813/aHBIC -- Page 2

tory suggests there might not be a dramatic increase in caseload. In FY 1998, when the limit was

$5,000, new general civil filings in magistrate courts totaled 15,637. In FY 2000, after the in-

crease to $7500 mandated by the 1999 legislature went into effect, there were 12,927 new gen-

eral civil filings. In FY 2001 there were 14,428. In 2001 the legislature raised the amount again,

to $10,000. In FY 2002 new general civil filings totaled 13,444; in FY 2003, 13,418; and in FY

2004, 15,312.”

The Bernalillo county metropolitan court takes a differing view and writes that the bill would

greatly swell the civil caseload of the court and raise the workload for the judges and court em-

ployees. The Bernalillo county metropolitan court argues that sufficient additional appropria-

tions should be made and predicts that the court will need to fund an additional judgeship and

more court staff positions.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The statistics regarding court filings provided by the AOC suggest that the change proposed in

this bill will not have a significant impact on caseload. However, if the predictions of the Berna-

lillo county metropolitan court or accurate, the bill may require shifting of resources from district

courts to metropolitan and magistrate courts.

EF/yr:lg