Committee advances bill to expand Access to Justice fee deposits and shift magisterial costs to a computer account

Summary

House Bill 331, which would expand fees deposited into the Access to Justice account, redirect certain magisterial district judge costs to a judicial computer-system account and increase funding for special court judges, passed the Appropriations Committee on a roll-call and was referred to the House floor.

House Bill 331 passed the House Appropriations Committee after a requested roll-call vote and will be sent to the House floor.

The committee’s executive director described the bill in overview: "We have house bill 3 3 1, which expands the fee for deposit into the access to justice account, redirects cost charged by the magisterial district judges to the judicial computer system augmentation account, and increases funding for the special court judges of Pennsylvania Association." A member requested a roll-call vote on the bill; the clerk called members and recorded a series of yes votes and designations. After the roll call, the chair stated, "Seeing that I have it, house bill 3 3 1 will pass this committee," and said the bill would be referred to the floor of the House of Representatives.

The transcript includes the clerk’s roll-call exchanges and several designation responses but does not provide a consolidated numeric tally in the excerpt. The committee did not record amendments in the transcript and gave no additional direction to staff during the meeting.

The bill now proceeds to the House floor for further consideration.