Indigents exempt from docket fees

THE indigent-holders of pre-need plans by the Legacy Group of Companies have been exempted from paying docket and filing fees by the Supreme Court.

The ruling partially granted the petition filed by Senator Mar Roxas who asked the high tribunal for the exemption specifically for pre-need plan holders victimized by the financial scam involving the Legacy group. The court said pre-need plan holders would have to present documents to prove they are indeed indigents.

In an interview, SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez explained that one of the documents that may be presented is a certification from the barangay hall where the complainant resides, attesting as to their actual circumstance.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee that conducted an investigation into the controversy involving pre-need firms such as the Legacy Group of Companies, earlier appealed to Chief Justice Reynato Puno to exempt victims from paying the regular court fees when they initiate civil or criminal suits against the firms.

Roxas requested the tribunal that plan holders be exempted from paying docket fees, special allowance for the judiciary, legal research fund fee, deposit for sheriff’s fee, the Philippine Mediation Fund and the Victim’s Compensation Fund.

In its March 3, 2009 resolution, the SC said that indigent litigants are exempt from payment of legal fees in all courts.

The circular defined indigent litigants as those “whose gross income and that of their immediate family do not exceed an amount double the monthly minimum wage of an employee and who do not own real property with a fair market value of more than P300,000.”

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. have filed several criminal complaints against Legacy Group, in connection with its alleged financial scam. –Rey E. Requejo, Manila Standard Today