Funding & Budgets

The Florida Legislature determined in a 2004 Constitutional Amendment that each Clerk of Court’s courtside budget would be funded through fines, fees and service charges incurred on court cases. In addition, the legislature created the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation (CCOC) to provide guidance to Clerks when developing their budgets, and to approve the proposed courtside budgets within the mandated guidelines.

The Clerk’s General Fund is used to support mandated court and non-court related duties. In addition to the sources listed above, the General Fund also includes revenue from recording fees, charges for services to the County, interest, and special funding if applicable, i.e., pandemic recovery funds or foreclosure funding.

Another funding source available to Clerk’s Offices is a Federal Grant Program which reimburses Clerks for costs incurred in assisting the Department of Revenue with child support enforcement. These services are provided by employees in the Civil Family Law Division.
Recording and other government fees are collected by non-court personnel and are related to the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller’s role as the County Recorder. The Recording budgeted expenditures are funded by recording fees and consist of personnel costs relating to the electronic recording of deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments, marriage licenses and other recordable documents, as well as issuing marriage licenses and maintaining Official Records.

Each Clerk is responsible for their own technology budget. In addition, legislation created a Special Revenue Fund to help offset the Clerk’s technology-related costs incurred to support the courts. These fees are charged on each page of a document recorded into Official Records. These funds can only be used for very specific expenditures guided by Florida Statutes. The Clerk has authority for this budget subject to the available dollars in the trust fund.