california civil-procedure rules-of-court civil
Can a waiver of court cost include printing costs or fees?
<p><a href="https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/fw001info.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Information Sheet on Fee Waiver of Superior Court Fees and Costs</a> states that “If you ... want to sue someone ... and cannot afford to pay court fees and costs, you may not have to pay them in order to go them court” and it enumerates what fees may be waived, including fees of obtaining copies or filing a complaint, but it does not name the original printing of a complaint.</p>
<p>In case of extensive documentary evidence, a complaint may contain hundred of pages in digital format and may cost hundreds of dollars that a filer may not be able to afford.</p>
<p>I read about examples when printing costs are recoverable in court cases in California where attorney’s fees and courts fees (and costs) can be recovered which shows that the court recognizes the materiality of loss in those expenses, and don’t consider them a trifle or insignificant financial matter of prayed for in a complaint.</p>
<p>If the courts recognize the materiality of these costs, does that mean that a waiver of all court fees should include costs associated with printing court documents, for e.g., the complaint, the the summons, etc. The plain meaning of the rules, laws and regulations don’t read as if allowing for them as they typically discuss court <em>fees</em> and not costs. Copies can be obtained, but can you request the clerks’ office to print such basic documents of yours for you if you have them digitally?</p>
<p><strong>Was this question or a substantially similar question decided and on what case or cases that are relevant in California superior courts?</strong></p>
<p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
<p>In response to the comment: You are permitted to file with or e-serve electronically the court, but not the other party without their consent. Even proof of actual notice may be disregarded if service of process rules are not followed properly. Assume the other party is represented by an attorney who explicitly refuses to accept electronic service despite the encouragement and advisement of the court that all parties do so especially in light of COVID. There are exceptions when a party intentionally tries evading service, but in this case their argument is plausible: They are simply entitled to an almost absolute right to be properly served.</p>
<p>Please name a single court in the U.S. that does not have a printer or a superior court clerk’s office in the Bay Area that does not have a laser printer. Deferral is also not from the devil, that’s what courts do with investigators, appointed counsel in counsels who are not part of a public defender panel, etc.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>In case of extensive documentary evidence, a complaint may contain
hundred of pages in digital format and may cost hundreds of dollars
that a filer may not be able to afford.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is almost never true. Indeed, complaints that long are not infrequently stricken on procedural grounds for being too long. A complaint does not have to include, and often does not include, any documentary support. It is sufficient to merely state what the relevant provisions of a document state in an allegation of the complaint.</p>
<p>A Complaint rarely needs to be more than 20-30 pages including attachments, even in a complex case with many causes of action against many parties. Frequently, a complaint can be as short as 2-5 pages in a fairly simple case. If your complaint including documentary attachments is hundreds of pages long, you are doing it wrong.</p>
<p>There are some narrow exceptions where documents must be attached, that are mostly limited to suits enforcing documents for which a copy does not have the same legal force as the original, such as a Will, or a &quot;live&quot; promissory note, but when the exceptions apply, the documents are usually quite short, and would almost never run to hundreds of pages.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Copies can be obtained, but can you request the clerks’ office to
print such basic documents of yours for you if you have them
digitally?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Generally not. A right to proceed without payment of fees does not mean a right to have the government advance you funds to obtain something (except in a quite narrow exception involving a right of an indigent party who also has a right to an attorney in connection with an appeal, usually in a criminal case, to have trial transcripts prepared in connection with the appeal at government expense).</p>
<p>Similarly, there is almost never a right to have service of process conducted at government expense in a civil action.</p>
