Frosh calls for eightfold increase in eviction filing fee

Maryland’s attorney general urged state legislators Wednesday to raise the landlords’ filing fee in evictions from a near national low of $15 to $120, about $8 above the U.S. average, saying the eightfold increase might discourage landlords from initiating eviction proceedings that have become too readily used against tenants in a time of financial hardship. Brian E. Frosh spoke in favor of legislation that would give the money raised by the increased fee to the financially strapped Maryland Legal Services Corp., which funds groups that provide free legal services to low-income Marylanders.