BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 1316
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:  August 7, 2002

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                              Darrell Steinberg, Chair

             SB 1316 (Judiciary Committee) - As Amended:  July 10, 2002 

          Policy Committee:                               
          JudiciaryVote:12-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill deletes or amends statutory language made obsolete by  
          trial court restructuring.  Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Updates code sections specifying the number of superior court  
            judges in each county to reflect the total number of judges  
            following consolidation of the superior and municipal courts.

          2)Repeals obsolete code sections setting forth the structure and  
            personnel of municipal courts for specific counties. 

          3)Repeals superseded county-specific superior court staffing  
            provisions.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible fiscal impact.

           COMMENTS  

           Background and Purpose  .  This bill is sponsored by the  
          California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) to update the codes to  
          reflect the trial court restructuring accomplished in the late  
          1990's.  Restructuring began with the Lockyer-Isenberg Trial  
          Court Funding Act of 1997, when the state assumed full  
          responsibility for trial court funding.  This was followed in  
          1998 by the Trial Court Unification Act, which unified the  
          justice courts, municipal courts, and superior courts.  Finally,  
          in 2000, the Legislature passed the Trial Court Employment  
          Protection and Governance Act (TCEPGA), which transferred  
          control of trial court employment from the counties to the  








                                                                  SB 1316
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          courts.  In enacting TCEPGA, the Legislature also directed the  
          CLRC to study the statutes affected by the two previous acts and  
          to make recommendations to the Legislature on repealing statutes  
          made obsolete by the trial court reforms. 

          A detailed discussion of the statutes repealed or amended by SB  
          1316 is available in the CLRC's March 2002 report entitled  
          "California Law Revision Commission Recommendation:  Statutes  
          Made Obsolete by Trial Court Restructuring:  Part 1."  SB 1316  
          updates the codes in a number of areas, but does not address all  
          of the statutes that need repeal or amendment.  The CLRC states  
          "The Commission has identified many other statutes that should  
          not be addressed at this time because fundamental policies  
          remain to be resolved."  SB 1316 removes the January 1, 2002  
          statutory deadline for the work on this project to allow for  
          regular statutory cleanup on an ongoing basis.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081