Section 81.307. Exemptions from MJ-IOTA Participation

(a) The Board may grant exemptions from participation in the MJ-IOTA Program. Exemptions are not automatic. The Board may declare a judicial official exempt from the requirements of maintaining a MJ-IOTA account. Alternatively, a judicial official may submit a written request for exemption. All requests by a judicial official must be made on the judicial official’s official letterhead, and all requests must set forth in reasonable detail the basis for the requested exemption.

(b) Exemptions may be granted only with respect to the maintenance of a MJ-IOTA account for qualified funds. The Board is not empowered to handle other types of exemptions. Judicial officials exempt from maintenance of a MJ-IOTA account are reminded that the judicial official remains subject to other requirements pertaining to custodial funds.

(c) Exemptions will be routinely granted in the following situations:

(1) Low balance account: Any custodial account which historically, generally based upon 12 consecutive months of activity, has an average daily balance of three thousand five hundred ($3,500) Dollars or less will be exempt from being a MJ-IOTA account. The Board may exempt from MJ-IOTA, without application, a low balance account. A judicial official requesting an exemption based on a low balance account must, as a part of the written request for exemption, include an account analysis or written statement that demonstrates the amount of the average daily balance.

(2) Account service charges routinely exceed interest: Some custodial accounts may have an average daily balance of more than $3,500, but account service charges routinely exceed interest earned on the account. A judicial official requesting an exemption under this subsection, as part of the written request for exemption, must include an account analysis or written statement that clearly shows the interest earned, or the interest that would have been earned, on the account each month for the past 12 months, plus the account service charges imposed on the account for each of the last 12 months. Only account-related service charges will be considered for the purpose of whether an exemption will be granted.

(3) Extreme impracticality: Under limited circumstances it may be unduly burdensome for a judicial official to maintain a MJ-IOTA account. When claiming undue hardship, the judicial official should provide appropriate detail demonstrating undue hardship. An example includes the lack of a depository institution that offers MJ-IOTA accounts in the judicial official’s geographical location.

(4) Other compelling and necessitous reasons: A judicial official who demonstrates a compelling and necessitous reason for not complying with MJ-IOTA may request an exemption. A philosophical objection to MJ-IOTA does not constitute a compelling and necessitous reason for an exemption.

(d) If the Board denies a judicial official’s request for an exemption from maintenance of a MJ-IOTA account, the judicial official may, within 30 days of written notice of denial from the Board, request in writing a reconsideration of the Board’s decision. All requests for reconsideration shall set forth in detail additional facts, if any, not brought before the Board in the request for exemption, as well as the reasons, if any, why an exemption should be granted.

(e) If the Board has determined that a judicial official’s custodial account is exempt from MJ-IOTA status, the judicial official may, within 30 days of written notice from the Board that the judicial official is exempt, request in writing a reconsideration of the Board’s decision. All requests for reconsideration shall set forth in detail facts, if any, why the judicial official should maintain a MJ-IOTA account, and the manner, if any, in which the Board and the purposes of the MJ-IOTA program will by furthered by the judicial official’s maintenance of a MJ-IOTA account.

(f) Notice shall be deemed to have been given to a judicial official under the provisions of this Section upon the deposit by the Board, postage prepaid, with the United States Postal Service of its written determination regarding the exemption, if any, of the judicial official from the MJ-IOTA Program.

(g) The Board may delegate to its staff or to a committee of the Board the authority to determine exemptions from MJ-IOTA or to reconsider exemption denials or determinations.

The provisions of this § 81.307 adopted January 6, 2005, effective February 1, 2005, 35 Pa.B. 497.