News In Brief

Governor David A. Paterson on Friday proposed increasing state registration fees for lawyers by $25 once every two years as a way of helping cover a funding shortfall of at least $15 million in the next state fiscal year for civil legal services.

The proposed increase to $375 would be part of a package of legally related revenue-raising measures now being pushed by the governor as a way to raise $41 million to help close a gap in the 2010-11 budget over which the governor and Legislature have been bickering since January. The governor on Friday also proposed a $500 one-time “credentialing fee” that law students educated outside of the United States would have to pay in order to take the New York bar exam. Other new or increased fees advanced by the governor were a $190 fee to be paid by financial institutions when they initiate a foreclosure procedure, a $95 fee when banks or credit card companies initiate a consumer credit action and an increase to $65 from $55 when the Office of Court Administration performs a background check on an individual.