2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 24 - Health and Safety
Article 14 - Vital Statistics
Section 24-14-29 - Fees for copies and searches.

A. The fee for each search of a vital record to produce a certified copy of a birth certificate shall be ten dollars ($10.00) and shall include one certified copy of the record, if available. A fee shall not be charged for a certified copy of a birth certificate of a homeless individual.

B. The fee for the establishment of a delayed record or for the revision or amendment of a vital record, as a result of an adoption, a legitimation, a correction or other court-ordered change to a vital record, shall be ten dollars ($10.00). The fee shall include one certified copy of the delayed record.

C. The fee for each search of a vital record to produce a copy of a report of spontaneous fetal death or a certificate of still birth shall be five dollars ($5.00) and shall include one certified copy of the record of fetal death, if available.

D. The fee for each search of a vital record to produce a certified copy of a death certificate shall be five dollars ($5.00) and shall include one certified copy of the record, if available.

E. Revenue from the fees imposed in this section shall be distributed as follows:

(1) an amount equal to three-fifths of the revenue from the fee imposed by Subsection A of this section, an amount equal to one-half of the revenue from the fee imposed by Subsection B of this section and an amount equal to one-fifth of the revenue from the fee imposed by Subsection D of this section shall be distributed to the day-care fund; and

(2) the remainder of the revenue from the fees imposed by Subsections A, B, C and D of this section shall be deposited in the state general fund.

F. For the purposes of this section, "homeless individual" means an individual:

(1) who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence, including an individual who:

(a) lives in the housing of another person due to that individual's loss of housing, economic hardship or other reason related to that individual's lack of a fixed residence;

(b) lives in a motel, hotel, trailer park or camping ground due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;

(c) lives in an emergency or transitional shelter;

(d) sleeps in a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; or

(e) lives in an automobile, a park, a public space, an abandoned building, substandard housing, a bus station, a train station or a similar setting; and

(2) whose homelessness can be verified through an attestation, which shall not be required to be notarized, by one of the following:

(a) a public or private governmental or nonprofit agency that provides services to homeless individuals;

(b) a local education agency homeless liaison, school counselor or school nurse;

(c) a social worker licensed in this state; or

(d) the homeless individual.

History: 1953 Comp., § 12-4-49, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 44, § 27; 1973, ch. 264, § 12; 1981, ch. 309, § 23; 1987, ch. 62, § 1; 1988, ch. 114, § 1; 2013, ch. 183, § 3; 2021, ch. 100, § 2.

Cross references. — For day-care fund, see 24-14-29.1 NMSA 1978.

For state general fund, see 6-4-2 NMSA 1978.

The 2021 amendment, effective June 18, 2021, eliminated fees for certified birth certificates for homeless individuals, and defined "homeless individual" for purposes of this section; in Subsection A, after "if available", added "A fee shall not be charged for a certified copy of a birth certificate of a homeless individual"; and added Subsection F.

The 2013 amendment, effective January 1, 2014, provided for a fee for searches of vital records for reports of spontaneous fetal deaths; and added Subsection C.

County clerks may not issue certified copies of death certificates simply to allow someone the chance to avoid the higher fees charged for the issuance of such certificates by the vital statistics bureau. 1988 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 88-01.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 66 Am. Jur. 2d Records and Recording Laws §§ 13, 14.

76 C.J.S. Records § 60 et seq.