BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1229
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   January 21, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                   AB 1229 (Evans) - As Amended:  January 4, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              JudiciaryVote:9-0  
          (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill clarifies a recently-enacted Judicial Council  
          program-authorizing the collection of reimbursements for counsel  
          appointed by the court to represent parents or their children in  
          dependency cases-to allow the court to designate a financial  
          officer from the county to determine parents' liability for  
          reimbursements.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible fiscal impact.

           COMMENTS  

           Background and Purpose  .  Last year, AB 131 (Evans)/Chapter 413  
          established a program to reimburse courts for the costs of  
          providing counsel to parents and their children in dependency  
          actions, if the parents have the financial ability to do so.   
          Current law also allows a financial evaluation officer to make  
          an evaluation of a parent's financial condition to determine if  
          reimbursement of any dependency counsel costs are appropriate.  

          According to the author, this bill clarifies current law so the  
          courts can either identify a financial evaluation officer on  
          their own staff, or, with the county's agreement, use the  
          county's financial evaluator.  According to the Judicial Counsel  
          (sponsor), AB 131 could otherwise be interpreted to require the  
          courts to obtain the county's agreement in order to create a  
          court financial evaluation officer.  The Judicial Council  
          believes the current language could create unnecessary work for  
          both sides to come to such an agreement.








                                                                  AB 1229
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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081