The Supreme Court of South Carolina

RE: Fees for Copying and Other Related Services

ORDER

This order establishes the fees to be charged by the Supreme Court of South Carolina and its agencies, commissions and boards (including the Division of Court Administration, the Division of Finance and Personnel, the Division of Information Technology, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the Commission on Lawyer Conduct and the Commission on Judicial Conduct), and by the South Carolina Court of Appeals for providing copies of documents or other related services.

(1) Copying Fee. A fee of 20 cents a page will be charged if the requestor makes the copies using a copier provided by the South Carolina Judicial Department. If the copies are made by an employee of the Judicial Department, the fee shall be 25 cents a page. The custodian of the records may require the requestor to make the copies if the requestor is from the Columbia area or if the requestor has requested a large quantity of copies.

(2) Mailing Fee. For mailing copies of documents, the following fees will be charged (in addition to any copying fee):

(a) A fee of $0.40 for 10 pages or less.

(b) A fee of $0.40 for each 10 pages over the first 10 pages.

(c) Any request for premium mailing such as Express or Priority Mail by the US Postal Service, or for the use of FEDEX, UPS or other provider must be paid in advance by the requestor. In addition, a fee of $7.00 will be charged for the handling of this request.

(3) Fax Services. In addition to the cost of copying the document, a fee of $7.00 will be charged for any request to fax a document to the requestor. Documents over 20 pages will generally not be faxed.

(4) Certified Copies. In addition to the cost of copying the document, a fee of $1.00 a page will be charged for providing a certified copy of a
document filed with the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals.

(5) Argument Tapes. A cassette tape of an oral argument before the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals may, if available, be provided for a fee of $20.00 by the Clerk of Court.

(6) Search Fees. No fee will be charged for searching for a document or other record if the document is located within 15 minutes. If the
search requires more than 15 minutes, the requestor will be billed for the entire time at a rate of$15.00 per hour.

All fees required by this order shall be paid in cash, or by check or money order made payable to the South Carolina Judicial Department. Further, the fees shall generally be paid in advance by the requestor. The custodian of the record may also require a deposit to be filed before searching for a record. If the request is from a corporation, partnership, law firm or other business entity, the custodian of the records may allow the requestor to be billed for the fees. If the requestor is billed and fails to pay within thirty days of the date of the bill, further requests from that requestor will not be honored until the account is paid in full. A requestor who fails to pay a bill within 60 days of the date of the bill will lose the ability to be billed for charges for a period of one year.

Any request to waive or reduce the fees provided by this order shall be decided by the custodian of the record involved. As a general rule, the fee will not be waived or reduced unless the custodian determines that furnishing the information without charge or a reduced charge would be in the public interest because furnishing the information can be considered as primarily benefiting the general public. Members of the General Assembly may receive copies of records and documents at no charge when their request relates to their legislative duties. S.C. Code Ann. 30-4-30(b) (2007).

This order is effective immediately and this order shall apply to all requests for copying or other services received on or after the date of this order.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Columbia, South Carolina
April 18, 2007