§ 14A.055.Other Costs

The escalation for repeat filers, and its trigger reaches across two chapters.

The order must include the additional costs where the court finds that the individual has previously filed an action to which this chapter or Chapter 14 applies, and that a final order has been issued affirming that the action was dismissed as frivolous or malicious.

The cross-reference to the inmate chapter is the difference, and it is deliberate. Many people in the civil commitment programme were previously incarcerated, and filings made during that time are within the inmate chapter.

Without the cross-reference the history would reset at commitment. A person with several frivolous dismissals as an inmate would arrive at the programme with a clean record for this purpose.

The disclosure affidavit is built to supply that history, requiring the result of every previous unrepresented action and naming the dismissal provisions of all three chapters.

Three categories become costs of court: expenses of service of process; postage; and transportation, housing, or medical care incurred in connection with the individual’s appearance in court.

The transportation and housing costs are substantial for this population. Moving a person committed as a sexually violent predator to a courthouse involves security arrangements, and the expense falls on the office until this section shifts it.

The conduct-of-proceedings section is the answer to that expense, allowing a remote proceeding without anyone’s consent — so the costs this section prices are ones the chapter also gives courts the means to avoid.

"Must include" leaves no discretion once the finding is made, and the consequence compounds through the filing bar that follows.