BILL ANALYSIS AB 2767 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 2767 (Feuer) As Amended May 13, 2010 Majority vote JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 15-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Conway, Ammiano, | | |Hill, Hagman, Huffman, | |Coto, Davis, Bonnie | | |Knight, Skinner, Monning, | |Lowenthal, Hall, Harkey, | | |Nava | |Miller, Nielsen, Norby, | | | | |Skinner, Solorio, | | | | |Torlakson, Hill | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Makes several non-controversial and clarifying changes to the codes. Specifically, this bill : 1)Corrects a drafting error in AB 1046 (Anderson), Chapter 499, Statutes of 2009, that specifies the wrong date on which the Judicial Council is first required to submit to the Legislature (and then every three years thereafter) the amount by which the dollar amounts of homestead exemptions in effect immediately before that date may be increased, and take effect if subsequently approved by the Legislature. 2)Requires any money representing restitution collected on behalf of victims that remains unclaimed for three years, even after published notice has been made, to be deposited either into the State Restitution Fund exclusively for the purposes of providing victim services or into the general fund of a county that administers a victim services program exclusively for the provision of victim services. 3)Revises and updates code references made obsolete by trial court restructuring, in addition to making several technical revisions also relating to trial court restructuring. These provisions address subjects such as municipal court marshals, municipal court bank accounts, interest on deposits of bail, and compensation of court appointed experts, interpreters and translators. 4)Clarifies that "inspection" of confidential paternity files by AB 2767 Page 2 parties and, with written consent, their attorneys and agents of attorneys, includes both inspection and copying of the files, as provided. 5)Corrects a drafting error in AB 1233 (Silva), Chapter 631, Statutes of 2009, that caused the inadvertent yet significant omission of the word "not" from provisions intended to prohibit the secretary, treasurer, or chief financial officer of a nonprofit religious corporation from serving concurrently as the president or chair of the board of the corporation. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations analysis, these technical and clarifying changes will have no significant fiscal impact on the courts. COMMENTS : This non-controversial committee bill is the Assembly Judiciary Committee's omnibus civil law bill. In order to be included in the bill, each provision must be non-controversial and not so substantive as to be more appropriate for a stand-alone bill. Furthermore, if a non-controversial provision later becomes controversial, that provision will be removed from the bill. This bill would correct a drafting error contained in AB 1046 a bill passed by this Committee on consent last year. AB 1046 currently requires the Judicial Council to submit to the Legislature the dollar amounts for the first potential increase in the homestead exemption amounts on April 1, 2010, and then every three years thereafter. However, AB 1046 only became effective on January 1, 2010, which is the same date that the new increases to the homestead exemption mandated in the bill took effect. According to the author of AB 1046, the underlying legislative scheme was not designed to require the Judicial Council to conduct a review of the homestead exemption amounts and report to the Legislature regarding these amounts just three months after the new increases in this exemption became law, and that the current requirement is simply the result of a drafting error. Instead, AB 1046 should have specified the correct date of April 1, 2013. This bill would fix that error and avoid the need for the Judicial Council to submit an unnecessary report to the Legislature. This bill would require courts to deposit any unclaimed victim restitution money that they have been holding for a minimum of three years into either the State Restitution Fund or into the AB 2767 Page 3 county general fund to be used by a local agency for purposes of victim services. Due to a drafting oversight, superior courts lack the necessary clarity to process unclaimed victim restitution, and in many cases, this results in money being unavailable for any purpose. This bill would clarify statute and provide superior courts with the necessary direction to process unclaimed victim restitution. This bill would revise and update code references made obsolete by trial court restructuring, in addition to making several technical revisions relating to trial court restructuring. Specifically, this bill amends Code of Civil Procedure Sections 1085 and 1103; Evidence Code Section 731; Government Code Sections 53647.5, 53679, 68092, and 71601; Penal Code Section 13510; and, relocates an existing provision to new Government Code Section 27473. These code sections address subjects such as municipal court marshals, municipal court bank accounts, interest on deposits of bail, and compensation of court appointed experts, interpreters and translators, among other things. The California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) proposes these revisions in response to legislative directive to remove and clarify statutes made obsolete by trial court restructuring. The author contends that these revisions will help prevent confusion and disputes, potentially reduce litigation expenses, and conserve judicial resources. The Legislature passed AB 1679 (Evans), Chapter 50, Statutes of 2008, to amend Family Code Section 7643 to permit inspection of confidential paternity files by parties to the action, their attorneys, and with written consent, agents of the attorneys. The legislative history of AB 1679, as evidenced by the bill's background sheet and the sponsor's testimony in committee, reveals that the amendment was intended to permit inspection and copying of the files. However, there are reports that some court clerks have interpreted the word "inspection" literally and are allowing attorneys, attorney services or authorized persons only to "inspect" the paternity files, but not to copy the file for later reference. This bill would simply clarify that both inspection and copying of paternity files are permitted, as provided by Family Code Section 7643. This bill would enact a technical correction needed due to a drafting error in AB 1233 that produces an unwanted and inappropriate change in the law. AB 1233 amended Corporations Code Sections 5213 (pertaining to nonprofit public benefit AB 2767 Page 4 corporations) and 9213 (pertaining to nonprofit religious corporations.) Both sections previously stated, "neither the secretary nor the chief financial officer may serve concurrently as the president or chairman of the board." As amended by AB 1233, Corporations Code Section 5213 correctly stated, "the secretary, the treasurer, or the chief financial officer may not serve concurrently as the president or chair of the board." (emphasis added.) An identical change was supposed to be made to Corporations Code Section 9213, but the word "not" was accidentally left out due to a drafting error. This bill would fix the inadvertent omission of the word "not" from Section 9213 and restore consistency and logic to the statute. Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0004333