BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2365|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2365
Author: Lieu (D)
Amended: 8/2/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE : 4-0, 6/22/10
AYES: Denham, Correa, Negrete McLeod, Cedillo
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 4-0, 6/29/10
AYES: Corbett, Harman, Hancock, Leno
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-0, 5/10/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Veterans affairs: administration
SOURCE : California Military Department
DIGEST : This bill permits a service member to recover
actual damages, reasonable attorneys fees, and costs from
any person who violates specified rights and protections of
the Military and Veterans Code. This bill also grants
service members an expedited review of a specified petition
for relief, and provides that a court shall not charge a
filing fee or court costs for specified actions.
ANALYSIS : Existing law generally provides legal rights
and financial protections for service members, with respect
to credit agreements, court proceedings, interest
CONTINUED
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liabilities, eviction proceedings, contracts, mortgages and
trusts, leases, life insurance policies, taxes and
assessments, and health insurance policies, as specified.
Existing law, the California Military Families Financial
Relief Act, permits any member of the United States
Military Reserve or the National Guard who is called to
active duty as part of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict to
defer payments on specified obligations while serving on
active duty.
Existing law, the California Military Families Financial
Relief Act of 2005, provides financial protection to
members called into active duty regarding fees for
recording a power of attorney, termination of mobile
telephone contracts, academic tuition, state bar fees,
vehicle leases, and residential utility service.
This bill provides that any person who violates the above
provisions shall be liable for actual damages, reasonable
attorney's fees, and costs incurred by the injured party.
This bill provides that a service member or other person
seeking to enforce the above rights shall not be required
to pay a filing fee or court costs.
Existing law permits a service member to, at any time
during his or her period of service or within six months
thereafter, apply to a court for relief from an obligation
or liability incurred by the member prior to his or her
period of military service, or from any tax or assessment
falling due prior to or during the period of service.
Existing law allows the court to grant specified relief
after appropriate notice and hearing, unless in its opinion
the ability of the service member to comply with the
obligation or pay the tax or assessment has not been
materially affected by reason of the member's military
service.
This bill, instead, requires a court to set a hearing on
the petition within 25 days from the date the petition is
filed, unless the court shows good cause for extending the
date of the hearing. That petition must be served at least
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10 days before the hearing, and the respondent must file
and serve a response to the petition at least five days
before the hearing.
This bill provides that a court shall not charge a filing
fee or court costs for those petitions, and provide that
any person violating the section shall be liable for actual
damages, reasonable attorney's fees, and costs incurred by
the injured party.
Comments
California law provides various financial and
consumer-related protections for service members. Those
provisions generally seek to provide protections against
various potential adverse effects of a deployment, and
include provisions enacted by AB 1433 (Horton, Chapter 60,
Statutes of 2002), which provided financial protection with
regards to court proceedings, credit contract obligations,
rental agreements, taxes, health insurance, and eviction
protection, and AB 1666 (Frommer, Chapter 345, Statutes of
2005), which provided additional protection for members
called into active duty with regards to fees for recording
a power of attorney, termination of mobile telephone
contracts, academic tuition, state bar fees, vehicle
leases, and residential utility service.
In order to assist service members in bringing actions to
protect their rights, the California Military Department,
sponsor, has coordinated with State Military Reserve Judge
Advocate General (JAG) Officers to assist service members
who have incurred financial hardship because of their
deployments. This bill seeks to help additional service
members enforce their rights and protections by permitting
the recovery of reasonable attorney's fees and costs,
removing filing fees and court costs for specified actions,
and permitting an expedited review for certain cases.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/26/10)
California Military Department (source)
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California Association of County Veterans Service Officers
National Guard Association of California
Vietnam Veterans of America, California State Council
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
This bill would authorize service members to recover
an award of reasonable attorney fees. Not only is
finding an attorney to represent a service member
claimant difficult without an attorney's fees
provision, but on a typical claim the service member
cannot be made whole when a significant portion of his
or her damages award must go toward non-recoverable
attorney's fees. For example, if a creditor has
refused to defer a mortgage or lower the interest rate
to six percent for pre-service debts, the over-charged
interest may only amount to several hundred dollars.
Another significant example is if an attorney is able
to recover $10,000 for a service member who needs this
to pay a loan he or she is in default on because of
the lender's violation of the [Military & Veterans
Code] and the attorney takes a 1/3 or 40% contingency,
the service member will still be in default, as the
funds needed to clear the problem are now going to the
attorney. The service member is still not out of the
hole?. Further, due to being deployed overseas, many
service members do not have the ability to immediately
pay court fees at the time of filing because of
geographical limitations or financial hardship. This
bill would grant a service member a waiver of court
fees so that the service member may proceed to enforce
these important protections.
This bill would also grant service members an
expedited review of their case. Under current law, a
service member may not be able to enforce these
protections until the service member returns from
deployment. A delay in enforcement often puts the
service member in irreversible credit problems,
regardless of the eventual outcome of the case.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
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AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De
Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Miller, Monning, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas,
Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Audra Strickland, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John
A. Perez
NO VOTE RECORDED: De La Torre, DeVore, Harkey, Mendoza,
Nava, Norby, Saldana, Solorio
TSM:nl 7/28/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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