BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1519 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 1519 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Introduced March 10, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Judiciary |Vote:|10 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Page 2 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. AB 1519 Page 3 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, AB 1519 Page 4 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