BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1316
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1316 (Judiciary Committee)
As Amended August 19, 2002
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :38-0
JUDICIARY 12-0 APPROPRIATIONS 23-0
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|Ayes:|Corbett, Harman, Bates, |Ayes:|Steinberg, Bates, |
| |Dutra, Jackson, | |Alquist, Aroner, Ashburn, |
| |Longville, Robert | |Cohn, Corbett, Correa, |
| |Pacheco, Rod Pacheco, | |Daucher, Diaz, Firebaugh, |
| |Shelley, Steinberg, | |Goldberg, Maldonado, |
| |Vargas, Wayne | |Negrete McLeod, |
| | | |Robert Pacheco, Papan, |
| | | |Pavley, Dickerson, |
| | | |Simitian, Washington, |
| | | |Wiggins, Wright, Zettel |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Deletes or amends statutory references made obsolete
by trial court restructuring. Specifically, this bill , among
other things:
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3)Repeals superseded county-specific superior court staffing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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations
analysis, negligible fiscal impact.
COMMENTS : This bill is sponsored by the California Law Revision
Commission (CLRC) as a first step towards updating the codes to
reflect the trial court restructuring accomplished in the late
1990's. CLRC states:
SB 1316
Page 2
In the late 1990s, California's trial court system
was substantially restructured through state funding
of trial court operations, trial court unification,
and reforms relating to trial court employment. As a
result, hundreds of statutes are now obsolete. The
Law Revision Commission proposes amendment or repeal
of obsolete provisions to reflect the restructuring
of the trial court system.
A detailed discussion of the statutes repealed or amended by SB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."
The trial court system of the state underwent monumental
restructuring in the 1990's. Restructuring began with the
Lockyer-Isenberg Trial Court Funding Act of 1997, when the state
assumed full responsibility for trial court funding. (AB 233
(Escutia), Chapter 850, Statutes of 1997.) This was followed by
the Trial Court Unification Act, which unified the justice
courts, municipal courts, and superior courts. (SCA 4
(Lockyer), Resolution Chapter 36, Proposition 220, approved June
2, 1998.) Finally, in 2000, the Legislature passed the Trial
Court Employment Protection and Governance Act (TCEPGA), which
transferred control of trial court employment to the courts.
(SB 2140 (Burton), Chapter 1010, Statutes of 2000.) Thus the
Legislature has steadily moved towards completion of the courts'
restructuring in order to achieve a better judicial system.
In enacting TCEPGA, the last of the three major trial court
reform bills, 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. (Government Code Section
71674.) The tentative recommendations of the CLRC were
published in November 2001, and have been out for public comment
since then.
SB 1316 updates the codes in a number of areas. SB 1316 clears
the codes of most references relating to former municipal
courts, and deletes obsolete code sections governing employment
in municipal courts. It further conforms the statutes
prescribing the number of judges in each county to the actual
judgeships formed following court unification, and makes other
changes to reflect court restructuring.
SB 1316
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This bill 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.
Because this bill affects many code sections that would also be
affected by other bills, this bill contains a subordination
clause stating that any section of any act enacted by the
Legislature during 2002 which takes affect on or before January
1, 2003, and which amends a section that is amended or repealed
by SB 1316, would prevail over SB 1316, whether chaptered before
or after SB 1316, with the exception of AB 3034, this year's
Maintenance of the Codes bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Kathy Sher / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN:
0006545