In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation to harmonize a provision in our Commonwealth’s Protection From Abuse Act relating to the assessment of fees for service of PFA orders.

When a court grants a PFA order, a $100 surcharge is assessed against the defendant. By statute, $25 of this fee is specifically distributed to the sheriff for the cost of serving the order on the defendant. However, in practice, the sheriff is not always the entity who performs the service of the order.

Due to staffing shortages, local police departments and the Pennsylvania State Police often bear the ultimate responsibility of serving the PFA orders. In these situations, the fee is not appropriately distributed to the law enforcement entity who served the order.

My legislation will clarify that the $25 fee shall be distributed to the agency that provided service of the PFA order upon the defendant.  
 

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 1860: 23-6106(d)
Printer's No. 1888: 23-6106(d)