BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2025
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 2025 (Gorell) - As Amended:  May 10, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              
          JudiciaryVote:10-0 (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) 
          to study and report to the Legislature on the following:

          1)The relationship under current law between mediation 
            confidentiality and attorney malpractice and other misconduct, 
            as specified.

          2)The availability and propriety of contractual waivers.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Absorbable costs to the commission, which establishes its 
          workload priorities amongst the topics directed for its review 
          by the Legislature. (The commission's proposed budget for 
          2012-13 totals $666,000, and includes funding for five staff 
          positions.)

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background and Purpose  . The commission was created in 1953 and 
            was given the responsibility to substantively review 
            California's statutory and case law. The commission seeks to 
            discover deficiencies in existing law and makes related 
            recommendations to the Legislature for needed reforms. The 
            commission may only study matters referred to it by concurrent 
            resolution of the Legislature or through separate legislation 
            such as AB 2025.

          2)The commission has developed considerable expertise over many 
            years on the issue of confidentiality in mediation 








                                                                  AB 2025
                                                                  Page  2

            proceedings. This bill requires the commission to study and 
            report to the Legislature regarding a specific and complex 
            question that the commission appears not to have considered 
            previously-the relationship between mediation confidentiality 
            and attorney malpractice and other misconduct. The bill is 
            prompted by a recent California Supreme Court decision 
            interpreting current law, and raising questions about the 
            policy implications of that law. There are many concerned 
            stakeholders with strongly held views on all sides, and the 
            commission's process allows for full investigation and 
            deliberation of these technical and complex issues.

              3)   Related Legislation  . ACR 98 (Wagner), pending in Senate 
               Rules, authorizes CLRC to continue its study of 21 topics 
               that the Legislature previously authorized or directed the 
               commission to study, deletes one topic, and adds a new 
               topic. 
           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081