BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2085|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2085
Author: Irwin (D), et al.
Amended: 5/31/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Nielsen, Hueso, Allen, Nguyen, Roth
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/28/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Military and veterans: legal aid
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill creates the Office of Military Legal
Assistance (OMLA) within the California Military Department
(CMD) and requires it to serve as a clearinghouse for the
coordination of attorneys offering pro bono legal services to
military service members needing legal representation.
ANALYSIS:
Existing federal and state law:
1)Establishes rights and responsibilities, pertaining to
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employment and reinstatement, for uniformed servicemembers
(both active and reserve components) and their civilian
employers.
2)Provides protections for uniformed servicemembers (both active
and reserve components) from the adverse financial effects of
active military deployment.
Existing state law establishes the CMD, which includes the
Office of the Adjutant General, California National Guard, State
Military Reserve, California Cadet Corps, and Naval Militia.
This bill:
1)Creates the OMLA within the CMD.
2)Requires the OMLA to assist current servicemembers in the
state, who require legal assistance, by providing access to
educational and informational resources and by providing
referral services to available legal assistance programs,
including reduced fee services, pro bono services, and
self-help services.
3)States that the OMLA may provide assistance in legal areas,
including, but not limited to, the federal Servicemembers
Civil Relief Act (SCRA), the federal Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), consumer
protection, and landlord-tenant issues.
4)Conditions the operational effectiveness of these provisions
upon legislative appropriation of funds.
5)Provides that these provisions shall become inoperative on
July 1, 2022; and as of January 1, 2023, are repealed - unless
a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before
January 1, 2023, deletes or extends the dates on which it
becomes inoperative and is repealed.
Background
Federal employment protections. USERRA is a federal law
intended to ensure that persons who serve or have served in the
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Armed Forces, Reserve, National Guard, or other uniformed
Services: (1) are not disadvantaged in their civilian careers
because of their service; (2) are promptly reemployed in their
civilian jobs upon their return from duty; and (3) are not
discriminated against in employment based on past, present, or
future military service.
USERRA applies to all public, private, and government employers
in the United States, large and small. USERRA's definition of
"service in the uniformed Services" covers all categories of
military training and service, including duty performed on a
voluntary or involuntary basis in time of peace or war. Although
most often understood as applying to Guard and Reserve military
personnel, USERRA also applies to persons serving in the active
components of the Armed Forces and the National Disaster Medical
System and the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service.
SCRA is a federal law intended to strengthen, and expedite the
national defense through protections extended to U.S.
servicemembers to enable such persons to devote their entire
energy to the defense needs of the nation. SCRA provides for the
temporary suspension of judicial and administrative proceedings
and transactions that may adversely affect the civil rights of
servicemembers during their military.
California state employment protections. Military and Veterans
Code (MVC) §394.5 provides Guard members and reservists with the
right to take temporary leaves of absence from civilian
employment without pay to perform military duties and MVC
§395.06 provides these military members with a general right to
employment reinstatement.
California state legal and financial protections. MVC §§400 and
§§800 protect Guard members and federal reservists from the
adverse effects of military deployment by providing various
financial protections with regard to court proceedings, credit
contract obligations, rental agreements, taxes, utility payment
obligations, health insurance, eviction protection, and fees
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related to recording a power of attorney, termination of mobile
telephone contracts, academic tuition, state bar membership,
vehicle leases, and residential utility service.
Comments
AB 2085 is responsive to a federal advisory memorandum published
by the United States Department of Defense and disseminated to
the States. The memorandum posits: "Service members and their
families have access to military legal assistance attorneys to
receive advice and assistance; however, they must generally
obtain their own counsel to represent them in court. State
Government can assist by coordinating pro bono legal programs
that can connect qualified attorneys with Service members and
their families."
The memorandum also advises that State government can provide
valuable assistance coordinating a pro bono program, by
establishing an office with paid staff to:
1)Market the program to attorneys throughout the state and
register volunteer attorneys;
2)Coordinate activities with organizations within the state that
also provide pro bono services;
3)Liaise with Legal Assistance Offices on Military Installations
and the applicable office within the State National Guard
Headquarters; and
4)Assess and assign requests for pro bono services.
The memorandum describes an ideal pro bono program as covering
the representational needs of Service members and families for
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matters such as consumer law, Service member Civil Relief Act
issues, Uniformed Service member Employment and Re-employment
Rights Act, civil liability, and portions of family law where
providing legal representation would not create inequity between
family members.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, significant
cost of approximately $800,000 per year to the CMD to staff the
OMLA to serve the 175,000 servicemembers in California.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/12/16)
Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Military
Community and Family Policy
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 6/2/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
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Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Eggman, Beth Gaines
Prepared by:Wade Teasdale / V.A. / (916) 651-1503
8/15/16 20:22:12
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