BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2882
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2882 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Amended March 29, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY: This bill makes a number of non-controversial changes
to family law in California, including: 1) allowing conversions
of subordinate judicial officer positions to judges; 2) allowing
formerly incarcerated child support obligors to petition a court
to suspend arrears that had previously accrued during a
now-sunsetted pilot program; and 3) updating and making
technical corrections to marriage establishment, adoption, and
Department of Child Support Services enforcement provisions.
FISCAL EFFECT:
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1)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.
2)Other costs are minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill is the Judiciary Committee's annual
omnibus family law bill. It seeks to improve the handling of
family and juvenile law cases in our courts by making several
non-controversial changes to family law.
2)Subordinate Judicial Officer Conversions. 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
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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. Since AB 2763 (Feuer) was signed in 2010,
the Legislature has ratified the conversion of SJOs to
judgeships four times: AB 1519 (Judiciary), Chapter 416,
Statutes of 2015; AB 2745 (Judiciary), Chapter 311, Statutes
of 2014; AB 1403 (Judiciary), Chapter 510, Statutes of 2013;
SB 405 (Corbett), Chapter 705, Statutes of 2011. This bill
seeks to provide the Judicial Council with that same
ratification for 2016-17. Judicial Council supports this
portion of the bill.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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