Court costs bills are received from the Travis County District Clerk as a result of issuance of executions or filing a final assessment in Travis County District Court. The billing includes a cover sheet reflecting the grand total of the billing and one set of computer printed bills listed in cause number order. Each page of the bills usually lists three to four separate cause numbers with itemized charges (filing and docket fee, venire fee, citation fees, and execution fees) posted for each cause number. The date, page number, and a control number for the billing appear on the top of each page. A partially completed purchase voucher (Form F-9T) also accompanies the billing.

Prepare an adding machine tape to verify that the grand total of the billing is correct. Enter the billing information (date on the Form F-9T, original tape total, etc.) on the log in front of the Court Costs Bills folder. Paper clip the adding machine tape to the Form F-9T and place both inside the Court Costs Bills folder.

Write the TWC Account Number for each cause number in black ink beside the defendant's name on the original set of bills. The account number is obtained by keying the cause number into the Tax system via employer master file inquiry screen or by doing a name search. View the court record or assessment record screen to verify the correct account number is identified.

Make copies of the bills so that we have a separate page for each cause number listed on the page. Place the original set of bills in the Court Cost Bills folder for delivery to Accounts Payable when the auditing is complete.

Working with the copies of the bills, highlight with a yellow marker the first cause number listed on Page 1, making one line across the page to include the defendant's name and TWC Account Number. On the second copy of Page 1, highlight the second cause number listed and proceed through the whole stack of bills so that each cause number has its own individual copy of the bill.
Place the court costs bills in TWC Account Number order by the highlighted number on each page. Any that remain unidentified (no account number or no definite account number determined) should be placed on the top of the stack.

The filing and docket fee, the venire fee, and the judicial fee are all automatically established on the Tax system when the cause number and the date suit was filed is manually entered on the court record. All remaining costs such as filing fees on assessments, citation fees, sheriff's service fees, and execution fees are manually entered as the charges are incurred.

Purchase vouchers, Forms F-9T, are submitted by the sheriffs, constables, and other serving authorities for service of citations and writs of executions. These purchase vouchers are audited and approved for payment and forwarded to Accounts Payable. A copy of the Form F-9T is retained by Civil Actions Unit and is used to enter the serving authority's service fee into the Tax system.

If a purchase voucher is not returned by the serving authority or if Accounts Payable processes a purchase voucher without Civil Actions Unit approval, the serving authority's service fee may not be posted to the Tax system when you audit the bill. It may be necessary to enter the service fee into the system when the bill from the District Clerk is audited.

Note: Service of citations and assessments may be handled by private serving authorities, sheriffs, and constables; however, service of writs of execution may be handled only by sheriffs and constables.

The District Clerk should never bill TWC for the $40.00 judicial fee. If the judicial fee is included in the bill, we should request that the charge be removed from the billing. However, the judicial fee should be set up on the Tax system for all suits filed after September 22, 1986 (Cause No. 405,178 and above). If TWC collects the judicial fee from the employer, it will be transferred into a special fund and forwarded to the District Clerk at that time.

If the bill is for an execution fee only, the following steps are taken:

• If the court costs status is "Final" on the court record or assessment record, this indicates a Form F-9T has been submitted for payment of the Sheriff's service fee. (Be sure that the renewal date is posted to the court record or assessment record as this verifies that an execution has been issued.) Check the nonquarterly charges screen for the amount entered for the service fee and write it on the bill below the execution fee. Write the grand total on the bill. File the bill in the Collection folder. No additional charges need to be entered on the Tax system.
  
  
• If the court costs status is "Pending" on the court record or the assessment record, this indicates we have not received a Form F-9T for payment of the Sheriff's service fee. (Again, be sure that the renewal date is posted to the court record or the assessment record screen as this verifies that an execution has been issued.)
  
  Determine the county in which the execution was served. We can usually assume that it was delivered for service in the county the account is domiciled in, but pull the Collection folder to verify this. Check the "Fees for Service" schedule to determine the current amount of service fees charged by that county.
  
  Access the court record maintenance screen or the assessment record maintenance screen for the appropriate Record IID and change the court costs status to "F" (final) and enter the Sheriff's service fee in the appropriate field. Write the amount of the service fee on the bill below the execution fee and the total of both fees on the bill. File the bill in the Collection folder. (If the Form F-9T for the service fee is received at a later date, the examiner processing the purchase voucher should verify that the amount of the service fee posted to the Tax system matches that on the Form F-9T and if not, key any necessary corrections on the Tax system.)
  

Any remaining bills for which a TWC Account Number could not be identified should be reviewed as follows:

• Check all locator sources thoroughly to determine if the bill is for TWC. Occasionally we receive bills that are not for TWC Tax cases. If it is determined that it is not a TWC Tax bill, call Accounting at the District Clerk's Office and ask that the charges be removed from the billing.
  
  
• If any of the bills are determined to be for Travis County Court Orders, give the bill to the Administrative Actions Unit Supervisor. The supervisor will set up the record on the Tax system and process the bill.
  
  
• If any are determined to be bills for Injunction suits, add any charges not already posted to the Tax system via the court record maintenance screen. Be sure that a court record has been set up for the Injunction. If not, establish one now. If the case is final, change the court costs status to "F".