BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1519
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1519 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Introduced March 10, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY: This Committee bill:
1)Ratifies the authority of the Judicial Council to convert 10
subordinate judicial officer (SJO) positions to judgeships in
2015-16, provided the conversion of these positions will
result in judges being assigned to family or juvenile law
AB 1519
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assignments previously presided over by a subordinate judicial
officer
2)Clarifies that, in a legal separation proceeding, preliminary
disclosure declarations must be served on the other party
within the timeframe required in dissolution proceedings.
Allows the time periods to be extended by written agreement of
the parties or by court order.
3)Clarifies the duty of the Department of Child Support Services
with respect to prepaid card accounts, consistent with the
duty of the Employment Development Department issuing
unemployment compensation benefits and county treasurers
issuing public benefit payments.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Annual costs of up to $300,000 for conversion of up to 10 SJOs
to judgeships. For each conversion of an SJO position to a
judgeship, the additional annual cost, based on salary
differences between the two positions, is approximately $27,000.
The Judicial Council indicates that these additional costs will
be funded through a reallocation of monies in the Trial Court
Trust Fund.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill seeks to improve the handling of family and
juvenile law cases in our courts by making three
non-controversial changes to family law.
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2)Background. According to the Judicial Council, SJO positions
were historically created and funded at the county level to
address courts' needs for judicial-like resources when new
judgeships were pending or not yet authorized by the
Legislature. Unlike judges, SJOs are not directly accountable
to the public, but due to the shortages of judges, are
performing some of the most complex and sensitive judicial
duties. Conversion of these positions to judgeships when they
become vacant makes them both more accountable to the public
and, the author contends, helps provide better trust and
confidence in the courts.
AB 159 (Jones), Statutes of 2007, in addition to authorizing
50 additional trial court judgeships, authorized the
conversion of 162 SJOs to judgeships, with a cap of 16
conversions per year and subject to Legislative authorization
through the budget, which has occurred each year. On top of
these 162 positions, AB 2763 (Feuer), Statutes of 2010,
authorized conversion of an additional 10 SJO positions per
year to judgeships, but only to fill SJO vacancies in a family
law or juvenile law assignments in order to address shortages
of judges in these areas. (The Judicial Council and other
parties have identified family and juvenile law matters among
those that are of such a nature as to require judges, rather
than SJOs, to preside over them whenever possible.)
This bill fulfills the requirement in AB 2763 that the
conversion of 10 SJOs be ratified by statutory enactment other
than the Budget Act.
3)Prior Legislation. Since AB 2763 (Feuer) was signed in 2010,
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the Legislature has ratified the conversion of SJOs to
judgeships three times:
a) AB 2745 (Judiciary), Chapter 311, Statutes of 2014.
b) AB 1403 (Judiciary), Chapter 510, Statutes of 2013.
c) SB 405 (Corbett), Chapter 705, Statutes of 2011.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081