MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2000 Regular Session

To: Fees and Salaries of Public Officers

By: Representative Evans

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 25-7-47, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO INCREASE THE FEES AND TRAVEL ALLOWANCES PAID TO WITNESSES IN JUSTICE, COUNTY, CIRCUIT AND CHANCERY COURTS TO THE AMOUNT ALLOWABLE TO WITNESSES IN ANY COURT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 25-7-47, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-7-47. Witnesses in the justice, county, circuit, and chancery courts shall receive the amount allowable as an attendance fee to a witness in a court of the United States, for each day's attendance. A witness also shall be paid the attendance fee for the time necessarily occupied in going to and returning from the place of attendance at the beginning and end of such attendance or at any time during the attendance. A subsistence allowance shall be paid to a witness when an overnight stay is required at the place of attendance because such place is so far removed from the residence of the witness as to prohibit return thereto from day to day. A travel allowance shall be paid to a witness in the following amounts: (a) when such travel is done by a privately owned automobile or motor vehicle, the mileage reimbursement rate allowable to federal employees for the use of a privately owned vehicle while on official travel, for each mile actually and necessarily traveled; (b) when the travel is by common carrier, the actual expenses of travel on the basis of the means of transportation reasonably utilized and the distance necessarily traveled to and from the witness's residence by the shortest practical route in going to and returning from the place of attendance, provided that the witness utilizes a common carrier at the most economical rate reasonably available; (c) the actual expenses for toll charges for toll roads, bridges, tunnels, ferries, taxicab fares between places of lodging and carrier terminals, and parking fees. Witnesses in all other cases shall receive the same compensation as they receive before the circuit court. It shall not be necessary to issue subpoenas for police officers as witnesses in city cases of cities having a population of more than ten thousand (10,000) according to the federal census of 1930; and such officers, when used as witnesses in such cases, are not to be allowed witness fees.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after October 1, 2000.