WILLIAM MCDONALD, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1994-02-16
No. 93-0657
HERSEY and POLEN, JJ., concur.
631 So. 2d 1137 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1994) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

McDonald appealed his conviction and sentence for cocaine sale, challenging an attorney's fee assessment of $750 and a $150 mandatory donation to a drug fund. The court affirmed that attorney's fees can be assessed against public defender clients but reversed the fee award because the trial court failed to hold a required hearing to determine the value of services, and struck the drug fund donation without prejudice.


Holding

Attorney's fees for public defender representation may be assessed against a defendant under section 27.56 because the statute distinguishes between 'costs' and 'attorney's fees' and only exempts costs related to government agency maintenance and operation. However, the fee award must be reversed because the trial court failed to hold a hearing as required by section 27.56(7) to determine the value of services with the defendant's opportunity to be heard. The $150 drug fund donation is stricken without prejudice.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court must hold a hearing to determine the value of public defender services before assessing attorney's fees against a defendant.

[2] A defendant must receive adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard and object to the determination of public defender fees.

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Key Quotes

“Costs shall not include expenses inherent in providing a constitutionally guaranteed jury trial or expenditures in connection with the maintenance and operation of government agencies that must be made by the public irrespective of specific violations of law.”

Establishes the statutory exemption for costs related to government agency maintenance, which does not apply to attorney's fees

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Facts & Procedural History

McDonald pled guilty to sale of cocaine and received a six-month county jail sentence. The trial court awarded a public defender attorney's fee of $75…

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Opinion of the Court
STEVENSON, Judge.

STEVENSON, Judge.

Appellant pled guilty to sale of cocaine and was sentenced to six months in the county jail. At the conclusion of the ease, an assistant public defender filed a motion to assess costs and attorney’s fees against appellant pursuant to section 27.56, Florida Statutes (1991). The trial court awarded an attorney’s fee of $750, imposed $100 in court costs and ordered a $150 “donation” to the Drug Trust Fund (the court costs and donation were to be deducted from the attorney’s fee). This appeal follows where appellant objects to the attorney’s fee assessment and the mandatory donation of $150 to the drug fund. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Section 27.56(l)(a), Florida Statutes, provides that the court may assess attorney’s fees and costs against a defendant who has received the assistance of the public defender’s office or of a special assistant public defender and states in part as follows:

Costs may include the cost of depositions; cost of transcripts of depositions, ... investigative costs; witness fees; the cost of psychiatric examinations; or other reasonable costs specially incurred by the county for the defense of the defendant in criminal prosecutions within the county.

However, properly assessable costs are restricted and the statute provides that:

Costs shall not include expenses inherent in providing a constitutionally guaranteed jury trial or expenditures in connection with the maintenance and operation of government agencies that must be made by the public irrespective of specific violations of law. (emphasis added)

Appellant argues that public defender salaries are a normal business expenditure for the public defender’s office and therefore public defender’s attorney’s fees are exempt from assessment based on the “plain language of section 27.56”. We reject this argument. The legislature in section 27.56(l)(a) specifically distinguishes the category “costs” and the category “attorney’s fees”. The legislature specified costs but not attorney’s fees when it exempted “expenditures in connection with the maintenance and operation of government agencies.” Therefore, we conclude that the limiting language in section 27.56(l)(a) does not foreclose assessment of attorney’s fees against a defendant represented by the public defender. Nevertheless, we must reverse the award of fees because the trial court failed to comply with section 27.56(7), Florida Statutes, which requires the court to hold a hearing to:

determine the value of the services of the public defender ... at which time the defendant-recipient or parent, after adequate notice thereof, shall have opportunity to be heard and offer objection to the determination, and to be represented by counsel, with due opportunity to exercise and be accorded the procedures and rights provided in the laws and court rules pertaining to civil cases at law.

In In re R.B., 582 So. 2d 168, 164 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991) this court suggested that the methodology of Florida Patient’s Compensation Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla.1985) would satisfy this procedural requirement.

We also note that the basis for the trial court’s imposition of the $150 donation to the Drug Trust Fund is not apparent from the record and will be stricken without prejudice to its proper reinstatement upon remand. As appellant correctly points out, if this is not a mandatory cost, appellant must be given adequate notice prior to its imposition. See State v. Beasley, 580 So. 2d 139 (Fla.1991).

Accordingly, we vacate the award of attorneys fees and remand for further proceedings.

HERSEY and POLEN, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Johnson v. State, 655 So. 2d 238 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)
    …n pertinent part: “Any cost assessed pursuant to this paragraph shall be reduced by any amount assessed against a defendant pursuant to s. 27.3455.” The legislature has specifically distinguished “attorney’s fees” and “costs.” See McDonald v. State, 631 So. 2d 1137 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994); Grate v. State, 623 So. 2d 591, 593 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993). GLICKSTEIN, KLEIN and STEVENSON, JJ., concur.…
  • Reese v. State, 678 So. 2d 893 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)
    …he total amount of $1200. Section 27.56(l)(a), Florida Statutes (1995), provides for the assessment of attorney’s fees against a defendant pleading nolo contendere who has received the assistance of a special public defender. See McDonald v. State, 631 So. 2d 1137, 1137 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). A public defender fee, however, “may not be imposed without notice and the opportunity for meaningful consideration.” John [*895] son v. State, 655 So. 2d 238, 238 (Fla. 4th DCA), dismissed, 660 So. 2d 713 (Fla.1995). Sect…
  • Obed Valdez v. State, 632 So. 2d 654 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)
    …[*655] STEVENSON, Judge. We affirm the assessment of public defender attorney’s fees against appellant pursuant to section 27.56(l)(a), Florida Statutes. See McDonald v. State, 631 So. 2d 1137 (Fla. 4th DCA, 1994). In addition to the issues raised by the appellant in McDonald, Valdez argues that the trial court erred in awarding attorney’s fees while denying his request for a hearing to prove his ability to pay.1 We hold that a trial cou…

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