I turn once again to the fountain of knowledge, my sippy cup of knowledge having run dry.

A TPWD officer called me to say that a JP court clerk wants $60 to issue a subpoena on behalf of the state in a Class C criminal case. As I understand it, this is not a fee for service of the subpoena, but for issuance.

I have not heard of this before, and can't find any authority for such a fee in the CCP or Govt. Code. We never paid subpoena fees when I was a misdemeanor prosecutor, but that was a while back. Does a JP have authority to charge a fee to issue a subpoena?

Chapter 102 of the Government Code deals with court costs in criminal proceedings. Section 103.021 lists miscellaneous fees that can be charged to a defendant. I did not see anything there. Section 103.022 lists general fees. I did not see subpoenas there either, but I only skimmed it. The rest of the provisions appear deal with charges that can be assessed to the defendant upon conviction or on behalf of a testifying witness, but not the mere issuance of the subpoena. There may be a fee set by commissioner's court for the service of the sheriff or constable (section 118.131 of the Local Government Code) but that would appear to apply to service of a subpoena, not the issuance of it, and it would depend on whether there is a contract with the sheriff and constable to serve subpoenas.

P.S. - Code of Criminal Procedure Article 103.002 prevents the imposition of a fee "for which a cost is not expressly provided by law."