Domestic violence victims have additional means to avoid paying court fees. First, as with other types of litigation, the general IFP provisions apply. The standard affidavit form presumes victims may seek IFP status, permitting the applicant to withhold address and telephone number in situations of abuse.1
Second, a litigant also has cost-waiving remedies built into the legislation for temporary restraining orders. When a temporary restraining order or protective order is sought, the victim “shall not be required to prepay or be cast with court costs,” and the abuser “may be cast for all costs.”2 This fee waiver applies “regardless of the ability of the plaintiff to pay court costs.”3 Further, as litigation surrounding the abuse continues, the division of costs persists:
[A]ll court costs, attorney fees, costs of enforcement and modification proceedings, costs of appeal, evaluation fees, and expert witness fees incurred in maintaining or defending any proceeding concerning domestic abuse assistance . . . shall be paid by the perpetrator of the domestic violence, including all costs of medical and psychological care for the abused adult, or for any of the children, necessitated by the domestic violence.4
The ongoing waiver also applies to subsequent temporary restraining orders.5 Unlike normal IFP procedures, the measure for a court to require costs from the petitioner seeking protection from abuse is not an unsuccessful resolution, but a determination that “the petition was frivolous[.]”6 Even in the case of frivolousness, however, the fee allotment is at the court’s discretion.7
- 1La. Dist. Ct. Rules, Appendix 8.0 (In Forma Pauperis Affidavit) p. 1.
- 2La. R.S. 46:2134(F)–(G).
- 3La. C.C.P. art. 3603.1.
- 4La. R.S. 46:2136.1(A).
- 5Jimenez v. Jimenez, 05-645, p. 4 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/31/06), 922 So. 2d 672, 674 (observing that the mandatory verb “shall” required continued fee waiver in a case with the issuance of fourteen temporary restraining orders).
- 6La. R.S. 46:2136.1(B); see also Vallius v. Vallius, 2010-0870, p. 6 (La. App. 4 Cir. 12/8/10), 53 So. 3d 655, 658 (reversing the trial court’s assessing the petitioner $500 in fees after finding no evidence of petition frivolousness).
- 7La. R.S. 46:2136.1(B).