44.108  Funding of mediation and arbitration.--Mediation should be accessible to all parties regardless of financial status. Each board of county commissioners may support mediation and arbitration services by appropriating moneys from county revenues and by:

(1)  Levying, in addition to other service charges levied by law, a service charge of no more than $5 on any circuit court proceeding, which shall be deposited in the court's mediation-arbitration account fund under the supervision of the chief judge of the circuit in which the county is located; and

(2)  Levying, in addition to other service charges levied by law, a service charge of no more than $5 on any county court proceeding, which shall be deposited in the county's mediation-arbitration account fund to be used to fund county civil mediation services under the supervision of the chief judge of the circuit in which the county is located.

(3)  Levying, in addition to other service charges levied by law, a service charge of no more than $45 on any petition for a modification of a final judgment of dissolution, which shall be deposited in the court's family mediation account fund to be used to fund family mediation services under the supervision of the chief judge of the circuit in which the county is located.

(4)  If a board of county commissioners levies the service charge authorized in subsection (1), subsection (2), or subsection (3), the clerk of the court shall forward $1 of each charge to the Office of the State Courts Administrator. That office shall deposit the funds in a state mediation and arbitration trust fund which is hereby established. Such fund shall be used by the Supreme Court to carry out its responsibilities set forth in s. 44.106.

History.--s. 6, ch. 89-31; s. 8, ch. 90-188; s. 6, ch. 91-152.