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Cal. Rules of Court, rule 3.55 · Division 2. Waiver of Fees and Costs

Court fees and costs included in all initial fee waivers

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)

Court fees and costs that must be waived upon granting an application for an initial fee waiver include:

(1) Clerk's fees for filing papers;

(2) Clerk's fees for reasonably necessary certification and copying;

(3) Clerk's fees for issuance of process and certificates;

(4) Clerk's fees for transmittal of papers;

(5) Sheriff's and marshal's fees under article 7 of chapter 2 of part 3 of division 2 of title 3 of the Government Code (commencing with section 26720);

(6) Reporter's fees for attendance at hearings and trials;

(7) The court fee for a telephone appearance;

(8) Clerk's fees for preparing, copying, certifying, and transmitting the clerk's transcript on appeal to the reviewing court and the party. A party proceeding under an initial fee waiver must specify with particularity the documents to be included in the clerk's transcript on appeal;

(9) The fee under rule 8.130(b) or rule 8.834(b) for the court to hold in trust the deposit for a reporter's transcript on appeal; and

(10) The clerk's fee for preparing a transcript of an official electronic recording under rule 8.835 or a copy of such an electronic recording.

Notes and commentary — not rule text

History

Rule 3.55 amended effective January 1, 2023; adopted as rule 3.61 effective January 1, 2007; previously amended and renumbered as rule 3.55 effective July 1, 2009; previously amended effective January 1, 2009; July 1, 2015, and September 1, 2019.

Advisory Committee Comment

The inclusion of court reporter's fees in the fees waived upon granting an application for an initial fee waiver is intended to provide a fee waiver recipient with an official court reporter or other valid means to create an official verbatim record, for purposes of appeal, on a request. (See Jameson v. Desta (2018) 5 Cal.5th 594.) It is intended to include within a waiver all fees mandated under the Government Code for the cost of court reporting services provided by a court.

Source of truth

Edition
As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
Official file
https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/three/rule3_55
Text hash
sha256 d084237d194650e9e11a29000794928e81dfa75bc63a021076885fdd59f75ff3
Composed by
compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph

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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.