(a) In addition to the fees authorized or required by other provisions of law, a judge may require the payment of an administrative fee, as part of an enrollment fee in a diversion program, by a defendant accused of a misdemeanor to cover the actual cost of any criminalistics laboratory analysis in a case involving a violation of the California Uniform Controlled Substances Act under Division 10 (commencing with Section 11000) of the Health and Safety Code, the actual cost of processing a request or application for diversion, and the actual cost of supervising the divertee, not to exceed three hundred dollars ($300). The fee shall be payable at the time of enrollment in the diversion program. The court shall take into consideration the defendant’s ability to pay, and no defendant shall be denied diversion because of his or her inability to pay.
(b) As used in this section, “criminalistics laboratory” means a laboratory operated by, or under contract with, a city, county, or other public agency, including a criminalistics laboratory of the Department of Justice, which has not less than one regularly employed forensic scientist engaged in the analysis of solid dose material and body fluids for controlled substances and which is registered as an analytical laboratory with the Drug Enforcement Administration of the United States Department of Justice for the processing of all scheduled controlled substances.
(c) This section shall apply to all deferred entry of judgment and misdemeanor pretrial diversion programs established pursuant to this title.
(d) The fee established pursuant to this section may not exceed the actual costs required for the programs authorized to be reimbursed by this fee. All proceeds from the fee established pursuant to this section shall be allocated only for the programs authorized to be reimbursed by this fee.
(e) As used in this section, “diversion” also means deferred entry of judgment pursuant to Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 1000).
(Amended by Stats. 1997, Ch. 324, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 1998.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018