§12-17-226.8. Fees.

(a) An offender may be assessed an administration fee when he or she is approved for a pretrial diversion program established under this division. The amount of the fee for participation in the program shall be in addition to any court costs, assessments for crime victim's compensation fund, Department of Forensic Sciences assessments, drug, alcohol, or anger management treatments required by law, restitution, or costs of supervision or treatment. A schedule of payments for any of these fees may be established by the district attorney.

(b) The amount of the administration fee shall be determined by the district attorney. The administration fees shall not exceed the amount assessed for a first offense pursuant to Section 13A-12-281(a) for each case for which the offender makes application for acceptance into the pretrial diversion program.

(c)(1) An applicant may not be denied access into the pretrial diversion program based solely on his or her inability to pay pretrial diversion program fees. Fees established by this division may be waived or reduced for just cause, including indigency of the applicant.

(2) If an offender, upon application, claims indigency, he or she shall be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction for a determination of indigency. In the event that a court determines the offender to be indigent, any fees or costs shall not be waived or remitted unless the defendant or the party responsible for paying any fees or costs proves to the reasonable satisfaction of the judge presiding or sentencing judge that the defendant or party is not capable of paying the same within the reasonably foreseeable future. In the event the offender is determined to be indigent, a periodic review of the offender's indigent status may be conducted by the court upon motion of the district attorney to determine if the offender is no longer indigent.

(d) Administration fees required by this division shall be collected by the district attorney's office or, if by agreement of the district attorney and the circuit clerk, the circuit clerk in the county of the judicial circuit in which the offense was filed may collect the fee. All pretrial diversion program fees under this division shall be deposited in a timely manner by the district attorney into the District Attorney's Solicitor Fund pursuant to Section 12-17-226.11. The district attorney shall make the deposits in a timely manner, pursuant to commonly accepted accounting practices. The District Attorney's Solicitor Fund shall be subject to regular audits by the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts.

(e)(1) Notwithstanding Section 12-17-226.11, twenty-five dollars ($25) of the administration fee shall be allocated to the appropriate circuit or district court clerk and shall be available for use at the discretion of the clerk to support the office of the clerk in the same way and manner as monies received from or through the District Attorney's Restitution Recovery Unit.

(2) Notwithstanding Section 12-17-226.11, in pretrial diversion cases arising out of circuit or district court, five dollars ($5) of the administration fee shall be allocated to the Victims of Crime and Leniency and shall be available for use at the discretion of the program to support its services.

(f) The fees allocated to the circuit clerk shall be disbursed to the Restitution Recovery Fund of the Clerk as established pursuant to Section 12-17-225.4(2). Funds deposited into the Restitution Recovery Fund shall be kept and maintained by the clerk to be available for use, at the discretion of the clerk, to support the functions of the office of the clerk and shall be in addition to the amount allocated to the Unified Judicial System for the clerks. Funds retained by the clerk shall not reduce the amount payable to the clerk under any local act or reduce or affect the amounts of funding allocated by the Administrative Office of Courts to the budgets of the clerks.

(g) Fees allocated or funds retained by the district attorney and deposited into the District Attorney's Solicitor Fund shall be kept and maintained by the district attorney to be available for use, at the discretion of the district attorney, as prescribed by this division or for any other legitimate law enforcement purposes or to support the functions of the office of the district attorney. The funds shall be in addition to the amount allocated to the district attorney pursuant to this division or any other act, grant, fee, assessment, fine, restitution, other monies, or alternative funding retained by the district attorney, and shall not reduce the amount payable to the district attorney of funding allocated by the State of Alabama to the budget of the district attorney.

(Act 2013-361, p. 1290, §9.)