Broward County Clerk of Court Brenda Forman. Photo: J. Albert Diaz.

In a case involving issues that a circuit judge likened to “trying to untangle a plate of spaghetti,” an appeals court overturned a ruling that said the state had “unconstitutionally underfunded” the Broward County clerk of court's office.

A three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal sided with the Florida Department of Revenue and the Florida Department of Financial Services, which appealed a ruling last year by Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers.

Gievers, in the 33-page ruling, agreed with Broward County Clerk of Court Brenda Forman that the state, through a system of redistributing court-filing fees, had unconstitutionally shortchanged the Broward clerk's office. Gievers, in part, pointed to the office not meeting performance measures, but the appeals court concluded that didn't mean the office was underfunded in violation of the state constitution.

“The trial court found the filing fee statutes were unconstitutional as applied because they rendered the clerk's office unconstitutionally underfunded, agreeing that even one instance of failing to meet a performance measure was indicative of unconstitutional operations,” said the decision by Judges James Wolf, Timothy Osterhaus and Harvey Jay. “However, we find the clerk failed to prove her office was unconstitutionally underfunded because she failed to put forth any evidence that the alleged lack of funding impacted her ability to meet her constitutional duties or impacted litigants' constitutional rights.”

The appeals court said the case focused on portions of filing fees that clerks are required to send to the state, with the Legislature then diverting part of the money to other purposes. The ruling said Forman argued that the “diversion of fees resulted in her office being so underfunded that it was unable to perform its constitutional duties.”

Gievers, in her April 2018 ruling, went into extensive detail about the history and constitutional issues involved in funding court clerks. She wrote that trying to understand the process of clerks sending filing fees to the state, “only to have certain amounts returned for their court-related operations, while others are deposited into various [state] trust funds is like trying to untangle a plate of spaghetti.”

In ruling for Forman, the judge said the state should not divert filing fees from the Broward County clerk's office “until a constitutionally proper appropriations process has been provided.” But the appeals court Thursday disagreed.

“At most, the clerk proved her office was operationally underfunded,” the appeals court said. “However, she failed to present any evidence that she was unconstitutionally underfunded. Performance standards are not constitutional requirements.”

Jim Saunders reports for the News Service of Florida.