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HB 25-1294

Court Costs Assessed to Juveniles

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Judy Amabile and 22 co-sponsors

Prohibits courts from charging or collecting certain fees and surcharges against juveniles who were under 18 at offense and under 21 at sentencing, and extends to their guardians.

Governor Signed
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Bill Summary · HB 25-1294

Summary — HB 25-1294: Court Costs Assessed to Juveniles

Status: Governor signed (took effect May 29, 2025)
Introduced: March 4, 2025 | Enacted: May 29, 2025

Purpose

HB 25-1294 makes permanent an existing prohibition on assessing certain court fees, administrative costs, and surcharges against juveniles in the criminal-justice system — and against their parents, guardians, or legal custodians — that was scheduled to lapse on June 30, 2025.

Key provisions

  • Permanently prohibits courts and the state from assessing or collecting specified administrative fees, costs, and surcharges in cases involving a “youthful offender” defined as a person who:
    • was under 18 years old when the offense was committed, and
    • is under 21 years old when sentenced.
  • Extends this prohibition to amounts assessed against the juvenile’s parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person who supports the juvenile.
  • Achieves permanence by repealing the statutory provision that would have caused the prohibition to expire on June 30, 2025 (amends Colorado Revised Statutes 18-1.3-704 by removing subsection (3)).

Who is affected

  • Youthful offenders charged as adults (under 18 at time of offense and under 21 at sentencing).
  • Parents, guardians, legal custodians, or other persons financially responsible for those juveniles.
  • Judicial Department cash funds that currently receive some court fee and surcharge revenue (potentially small revenue reductions).

Fiscal and administrative impact

  • Fiscal Note (final, July 2, 2025):
    • State revenue: projected reduction is minimal (no dollar estimate). Revenue from these fees accrues to various Judicial Department cash funds and is subject to TABOR.
    • State expenditures/workload: minimal. One-time FY 2025‑26 workload to update court data systems to auto-identify exempt cases; ongoing manual workload reduced thereafter.
    • No appropriations required.
  • Background: After HB 21‑1315 (2021), courts vacated about $2.9 million in juvenile-related assessed fees and fines. Approximately 56 juveniles per year enter the youthful-offender system, contributing to the expectation that revenue effects will be small.

Procedural history

  • House introduced Mar 4, 2025; passed House and Senate (no substantive changes on final passage).
  • Sent to Governor May 13, 2025; signed May 29, 2025.

Sponsors

Primary sponsors: Rep. Jamie Jackson and Rep. Junie Joseph (House); Sen. Tony Exum and Sen. Julie Gonzales (Senate). Many additional cosponsors across both chambers.

For more detail, see Colorado Revised Statutes §18-1.3-704 and the Legislative Council fiscal note (Final, 7/2/2025).

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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