BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                               AB 2256
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       CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
       AB 2256 (Garcia)
       As Amended June 16, 2014
       Majority vote 
        
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       |ASSEMBLY:  |52-11|(April 3, 2014) |SENATE: |30-4 |(August 14,    |
       |           |     |                |        |     |2014)          |
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        Original Committee Reference:    JUD.  

        SUMMARY  :  Revises and increases statutorily prescribed fees for  
       serving, executing, and processing required court notices, writs,  
       orders, and other services provided by sheriffs, and makes various  
       other changes relating to service of civil process.  Specifically,  
        this bill  :   

       1)Increases the fees for many services provided by sheriff's  
         departments, such as serving, executing, and processing court  
         notices, writs, and orders.  Among other things, the fee for service  
         of a summons and complaint is increased from $35 to $40, and the fee  
         for serving or executing any process or notice required by law is  
         also increased from $35 to $40.

       2)Increases, from $15 to $18, the set-aside amount of any fee  
         collected by the sheriff's civil division or marshal under  
         Government Code Sections 26721, 26722, 26725, 26726, 26728, 26730,  
         26733.5, 26734, 26736, 26738, 26742, 26743, 26744, and 26750 that is  
         required to be deposited in a special fund in the county treasury.

       3)Repeals the United States (U.S.) citizenship requirement that  
         applies to any person who seeks to service legal process in an  
         action against a sheriff.

       4)Requires access to a gated community by a sheriff, registered  
         process server, or licensed private investigator, whether or not a  
         guard is present, for the purpose of performing lawful service of  
         process or service of a subpoena, and repeals the requirement for  
         disclosure of the identity of the person to be served to a guard at  
         the gated community.











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       5)Allows the sheriff to publish notice of service of a protective  
         order on the sheriff's public Web site, in addition to providing  
         such notice by email or telephone to the person protected by the  
         order.
          
       The Senate amendments  :  

        1)Narrow the scope of the bill by removing various provisions relating  
         to, among other things: civil contempt warrants, service of  
         garnishment upon banks, and service upon companies of unknown  
         business form.

       2)Remove the existing requirement that a person serving legal process  
         identify the person or persons to be served to any guard or security  
         personnel before being granted access to the gated community.

       3)Clarify the permissive authority of a sheriff to notify a person  
         protected by a protected order that the order was served by posting  
         this notification on the sheriff's Web site.
        
       FISCAL EFFECT  :  None

        COMMENTS  :  This bill, sponsored by the California State Sheriff's  
       Association and the Los Angeles County Sheriff, primarily seeks to  
       increase fees for service of legal process and other types of services  
       provided by sheriffs.  In most cases, the fee increases sought by this  
       bill are modest and in the range of $5 to $10 per service provided.   
       In addition, this bill contains a number of otherwise unrelated  
       provisions that seek to increase operational efficiencies for sheriffs  
       in carrying out their day-to-day duties related to service of civil  
       process, and conserve scarce resources.

       According to the author, the primary purpose of this bill is to make  
       modest increases to the fees charged by sheriffs' departments to  
       address significant budget shortfalls that have impaired the sheriffs'  
       civil process operations.  Proponents state that the fees currently  
       assessed cover only a portion of the costs sheriffs incur in  
       performing service of process, and often force sheriffs' budgets to  
       bear the majority of the burden.  They contend that these proposed fee  
       increases are needed to increase revenue, help offset increasing  
       costs, and make service of process functions more self-supporting to  
       protect local governments from having to cover budgetary shortfalls.










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       This bill seeks increases to most types of civil process-related  
       service offered by sheriffs under the Government Code (commencing with  
       Section 26720) specifying fees to be charged by sheriffs.  In  
       addition, this bill seeks to increase, from $15 to $18, the amount of  
       any applicable fee collected by the sheriff's civil division that is  
       required to be deposited in a special fund in the county treasury.   
       The proposed new $18 set-aside amount applies to 14 types of common  
       fees specified in the Government Code.  According to the author, this  
       is not a fee increase, but rather a subsidy provision that allows the  
       sheriff to retain a greater share of fee revenue for its civil  
       operations and minimize the amount that taxpayers might have to  
       ultimately subsidize when the sheriff's costs exceed its revenue.

       An increasing number of Californians now live in gated communities  
       that frequently are staffed by a guard at the main entrance.  Existing  
       law requires a sheriff or other person seeking to perform service of  
       process upon a resident of a gated community staffed by a guard to  
       display his or her identification to the guard and disclose the  
       identity of the person to be served.  According to the author,  
       conditional access to a gated community conflicts with the authority  
       of the sheriff to access such areas to perform his or her legal  
       duties, including lawful service of process.  Moreover, the author  
       contends that this requirement serves little useful purpose other than  
       to alert a resident of a gated community that a sheriff is present at  
       the guard's station to serve legal process and allow the resident an  
       opportunity to avoid being served.  Accordingly, this bill would  
       simply repeal the requirement that the person serving process disclose  
       the identity of the person to be served to the guard at a gated  
       community, if there is one.   
        
       Existing law permits but does not require the sheriff to notify a  
       person protected by a protective order that the order was served by  
       contacting the protected person by phone or email.  Existing law  
       already requires notification to the protected person by U.S. mail to  
       confirm the order was served, and this bill does not disturb that  
       requirement.  This bill would revise these provisions to allow the  
       sheriff to post this information to the sheriff's Web site in addition  
       to (but not in lieu of) email or telephone notification.  According to  
       the author, this will help conserve sheriffs' resources because Web  
       site posting is more efficient than telephone calling, particularly  
       for large batches of protective orders.










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        Finally, this bill repeals an outdated and peculiar provision of law,  
       dating to 1951, that requires any person serving process in an action  
       against a sheriff to be a U.S. citizen.
        

       Analysis Prepared by  :    Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 


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