For over a decade, PARCA has documented the role of court costs as they exist at the intersection of public finance and public safety, sometimes providing the only analysis of this important source of revenue. In a report sent to lawmakers earlier this week, Chief Justice Sarah Stewart writes that Alabama lawmakers should standardize court costs statewide, revise old rules to create flexibility as to how court cost revenue can be spent, and identify more sustainable ways to fund local services that is “separate from the courthouse filing counter.”

The report is a product of the Joint Interim Study Commission on Court Costs, which was created in 2025 by an Act of the Alabama State Legislature and met several times in 2025. As defined by the Interim Study Commission, court costs are “money a person pays when they file a case in court or, in criminal cases, when they are convicted.” Every case type comes with standardized statewide costs. Most counties have layered one or more additional costs on top of those, often to pay for expenses like jails.

Lawmakers tasked Commission, created by Act 2025-244, with evaluating court costs and making recommendations to improve the system. Its key findings include:

1. There are more than 250 local “add-on” court costs created by statute or local constitutional amendment.
2. Over a dozen local court costs contain “sunset” language (meaning lawmakers intended them to expire at some point), but may still be assessed today.
3. Local add-ons for civil filing fees range from $0 in some counties to $182 in the most expensive (Madison County), with a statewide average of $30.
4. While civil filing fees are collected at nearly 100% of what is assessed, criminal court costs, fines, and fees are collected at 15%-20%,“because most people convicted of crimes have very limited ability to pay, especially while incarcerated.”
5. Practices around court costs vary in Alabama’s neighboring states, with some having uniform costs across counties and others having an even more patchwork system than Alabama.

The Commission’s recommendations were extensive. The included simplifying and standardizing court costs, creating processes for periodic reviews, adding measures for increased transparency and public accountability, finding other ways to fund non-court functions, and reconsidering the “economic feasibility of relying on often-uncollectible criminal court costs and fees.”

To learn more about Alabama’s patchwork system of local court costs and their association with local jail rates, click here.

For a deep dive into how criminal court costs, fines, and fees operate in one Alabama county, examining both public finance and equity implications, click here.

For PARCA’s 2014 Court Cost Study, which remains the only comprehensive existing public analysis of court costs in Alabama, click here.

Read the full report here.