BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2767
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2767 (Judiciary Committee)
As Amended June 15, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |70-0 |(May 17, 2010) |SENATE: |33-0 |(August 2, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: JUD.
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
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,
AB 2767
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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.
The Senate amendments remove an additional provision in the
Evidence Code that was inadvertently omitted from a previous set
of amendments in order to restore existing law.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the version approved by the Senate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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
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three years into either the State Restitution Fund or into the
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; 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
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Code Sections 5213 (pertaining to nonprofit public benefit
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: 0005169