Palm Beach County Branch closure will not affect automobile accident victims

Due to large budget cuts and staff layoffs, The Palm Beach County publicly elected official Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock said she will close the mid-county branch office in Royal Palm Beach at the end of the month.

This office is located at the Midwestern Communities Services Center, at 200 Civic Center Way and services approximately 1,000 customers a week with a variety of court and county filings, including traffic citation payments, marriage licenses, value adjustment board petitions and passports. This particular branch does not hear circuit civil cases, so it probably will not affect automobile accident victims, with the exception of traffic ticket given to the wrongdoer. Thos will have to be heard in central county, and may take longer.
 
Sharon R. Bock said 66 of her employees would need to be fired to meet a state-mandated $7.1 million, or 18 percent, reduction in the office’s budget by July 1.

“With the budget cuts, the Legislature has forced us to eliminate several practices focused on customer convenience,” she said in a news release. “Unfortunately, any cut we make affects the public in some way. We’re trying to make cuts that have the least impact.”

Because no court cases take place at the mid-county branch, it is the only location that can close without impacting the rest of the judiciary, according to the news release.

Still, Bock and other court clerks have predicted serious delays in the court process as a result of cutbacks. This is because all of the pro-se traffic ticket people will now have to shift themselves out to the other branches.

Alternate offices (which are actual courthouses) include the main courthouse in West Palm Beach or other branch offices in Belle Glade, Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens.

While the clerk’s office is closing in the Midwestern Communities Services Center, other government agencies, such as the Tax Collector and Property Appraiser, will remain open.

The office plans to re-evaluate a mid-county location in the future.

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