PAO not exempt from paying sheriff’s expenses

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) sought clarification with the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) on whether PAO’s clients were exempt from the payment of sheriff’s expenses amounting to one thousand pesos (P1,000.00) when civil actions are filed in court. The PAO alleged that its clients should be exempt from paying sheriff’s expenses since Sec. 6, R.A. 9406, An Act Reorganizing and Strengthening the Public Attorney’s Office, “specifically exempts them from the payment of docket and other fees incidental to instituting an action in court and other quasi-judicial bodies.”

The OCA clarified that notwithstanding PAO’s exemption in R.A. 9406 from payment of docket and other fees incidental to instituting an action, it was not exempt from the payment of sheriff’s expenses. The OCA explained that sheriff’s expenses, strictly speaking, are not considered as “legal fees” under Rule 141 of the Rules of Court since they are not payable to the government; they are payable to the sheriff/process server to defray his travel expenses in serving court processes in relation to the litigants case.