Joint Judiciary Committee launches Act 38 study into district court funding, cites AOJ shortfalls

The joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee opened a meeting to begin an Act 38 study into how Arkansas funds its district courts, with witnesses telling lawmakers the state’s system of court costs and special fees is unstable and burdensome for misdemeanor defendants.

John Wilkerson, general counsel and legislative director for the Arkansas Municipal League, thanked committee chairs for sponsoring the study and described the work as aimed at sorting statutory ambiguity and identifying equitable changes to city, county and state funding responsibilities. Mark Whitmore of the Association of Arkansas Counties told lawmakers the core problem is structural: the Administration of Justice (AOJ) fund is split across 24 designated buckets while roughly 30 miscellaneous fees are imposed on defendants, producing…