BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1103
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Date of Hearing: May 2, 2001
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Patricia Wiggins, Chair
AB 1103 (Papan) - As Amended: April 5, 2001
SUBJECT : Law library boards of trustees.
SUMMARY : Revises the requirements for law library boards of
trustees. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the appointment of persons who are residents of the
county as law library board trustees.
2)Expands the authorization of who may serve as a trustee from
county bar members to State Bar members.
3)Eliminates the requirement that a municipal court judge serve
as a trustee.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes in each county a board of law library trustees for
the purpose of governing the county law library.
2)Provides for the membership of those boards, which is limited
to superior and municipal court judges, and members of the
county bar, and members of the board of supervisors.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
1)SCA 4 (Lockyer), Chapter 34, Statutes of 1996, provided a
local option for merger of the superior and municipal courts
in each county. It addressed the concern about duplication
of resources between the courts and facilitating the
administration of justice. SB 2169 (Lockyer), Chapter 931,
Statutes of 1998, made various technical statutory changes
needed
to implement trial court unification in counties which so
elected following the approval of SCA 4. This bill is a
continuation of such efforts, amending the requirements of who
may sit on a law library board of trustees.
AB 1103
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2)Proponents of the bill contend that allowing members of the
general public to serve on the boards of county law libraries
would broaden the representation of the public on county law
library boards and reflect the extent of actual library users.
They state that there are an increasing number of laymen
using law libraries for purposes such as self-representation
in a court of law. In addition, proponents assert that
allowing the general public onto a board enables the lay
community to become more familiar with what a law library
does.
Proponents assert that allowing the general public on a board
would be beneficial for fundraising. Judges are constrained
in what they can do to raise money due to ethical
obligations. Proponents state that a major problem of county
law libraries is funding because the statutory source of
funding emanates from a fraction of civil filing fees.
Decline in civil action filings has reduced the county law
library funding in the past several years. They believe that
a county board of supervisors is more likely to appropriate
general fund county money to the county law library if the
power of the board and the courts exists to appoint at least
one law library trustee who is a representative of the general
public.
3)Many attorneys do not belong to a county bar in the locale
where they live or practice, whereas all attorneys are
required to belong to the State Bar. Deleting the requirement
of county bar membership allows all of the attorneys in the
county to be eligible to serve on
the board.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
CA Law Revision Commission
San Mateo County Law Library
Opposition
None on file
AB 1103
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Analysis Prepared by : Joanne Wong / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958