Rule 6.1. Fees; Waiver; Indigency

Assessment on the Filing Event. A fee is assessed by the electronic filing system at the moment the filing record is created, and is computed from the filing code. No fee is assessed by the clerk, by the court, or by the filer, and no fee is computed from the filer’s own label, title, or caption of any document.

Fees on Opening a Case. A filing that opens a case carries a case-initiation fee, a document-filing fee, and a service fee.

Fees on a Subsequent Filing. A filing made in a case already open carries:

Amounts. The amount of every fee is fixed by the schedule of fees prescribed by rule of the Supreme Court under 3 R. Stat. § 121.207 and 3 R. Stat. § 131.106, and is maintained by the clerk. This rule states no amount, and no amount shall be inferred from it.

Access Not Conditioned on Payment. An assessed fee that is unpaid does not prevent, delay, suspend, or condition:

No filing shall be held, no case shall be suspended, and no lien shall attach to any filing or to any case by reason of an unpaid fee. This subdivision conforms to Const. art. I, § 1, by which every person ought to obtain right and justice freely and without being obliged to purchase it.

Collection. An unpaid fee is a debt of the person against whom it was assessed, collectible as the schedule of fees provides. Its non-payment is a matter of collection and is not a matter of procedure. The clerk shall maintain a record of the fees assessed and their disposition, as 7 R. Stat. § 132.202 requires of court costs.

Fees Not Reviewed by the Clerk. The clerk shall not consider the status of any fee in deciding whether to accept a filing, and shall not reject a filing on the ground that a fee is unpaid.

Officers Assessed at Zero. A filing made by a judge, a clerk, a state attorney, or an administrator of the court is assessed at zero, and the assessment is recorded as made and satisfied so that the record of the filing is complete.

Waiver Requested by the Fee Owner. The person against whom a fee is assessed may request that it be waived. The request shall state a reason, which shall not exceed five hundred (500) characters.

Effect of a Waiver Request. A request for waiver:

Does not suspend, reduce, void, or alter the fee;

Does not toll, extend, or preserve the timeliness of any act or any period; and

Does not block, delay, or condition anything.

Only the Clerk May Waive. Only the clerk may enter a waiver. No judge shall waive a fee, and no order shall of itself effect a waiver. Where the court by order directs that a fee be waived, the waiver takes effect when the clerk enters it.

No In Forma Pauperis Motion. There is no motion to proceed in forma pauperis. None shall be filed and none shall be required. No period is preserved, tolled, or extended by any application for relief from a fee, and no act is rendered timely by the pendency of such an application. Relief from a fee is sought only as Rule 6.1(9) provides, and relief from a period is sought only as Rule 6(13) provides.

Payment. A fee is settled in full. There is no partial payment and no partial satisfaction. A duplicated payment discharges the fee once and creates no second charge. Payment may be made by any method the clerk provides, whether at the court’s portal or by any facility of the game.

Effect of Rejection on a Fee. The rejection of a filing does not of itself void the fee assessed upon it; the person against whom it was assessed may request a waiver under Rule 6.1(9). The rejection of a case voids every unpaid fee in it, as Rule 5.3(14) provides.

Programmatic Filings. A programmatic filing under Rule 5.5 is assessed no fee. Ratification of a programmatic filing under Rule 5.5(5) carries the fee prescribed by Rule 6.1(3) for the ratifying filing.

Fees Distinguished from Costs. A fee assessed under this rule is not a cost of the action. The taxation, award, and recovery of costs and of attorney’s fees are governed by Rule 41 and by 7 R. Stat. §§ 132.201 through 132.203.