The bill amends sections 9-12-10 and 9-12-10.1 of the General Laws in Chapter 9-12 entitled "District Court Practice," changing the procedures and fees associated with filing a claim of appeal to superior court in civil cases. The amendments include the removal of the requirement for the party claiming the appeal to pay all costs, including an attorney’s fee of fifty dollars ($50.00), to the clerk at the time of claiming the appeal. Instead, new provisions are added: if the plaintiff files the claim of appeal, they must pay an appeal fee of seventy dollars ($70.00) to the clerk, which is then paid to the adverse party or divided equally among multiple parties. If the defendant files the claim of appeal, they must pay a total of one hundred fifteen dollars ($115), which includes a filing fee of seventy dollars ($70.00), a service fee of forty-five dollars ($45.00), a civil case processing fee of seventeen dollars and fifty cents ($17.50), and a technology surcharge of three dollars and twenty-five cents ($3.25).

Additionally, the bill modifies the timeframe for filing a claim of appeal in landlord-tenant actions to include Saturdays, Sundays, and state or federal legal holidays within the five-day period after judgment is entered. The same fee structure applies to landlord-tenant actions as in other civil cases, with plaintiffs paying a seventy-dollar appeal fee and defendants paying the one hundred fifteen-dollar total fee, including the filing, service, processing fees, and technology surcharge. The act is set to take effect upon passage.