BILL ANALYSIS
SB 556
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 556 (Judiciary Committee)
As Amended July 7, 2009
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :37-0
JUDICIARY 9-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, |
| |Evans, Jones, Krekorian, | |Ammiano, |
| |Lieu, Monning, Silva | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| | | |Davis, Duvall, Fuentes, |
| | | |Hall, Harkey, Miller, |
| | | |John A. Perez, Skinner, |
| | | |Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Makes several clarifications with respect to court
operations. Specifically, this bill :
1)Clarifies that the clerk of the court must charge and collect all
small claims fees for enforcement of judgments, as provided.
2)When court approval is sought to authorize a proposed transaction
involving community property where one or both spouses lack legal
capacity, limits the authority of the court to appoint a court
investigator to review the proposed transaction to only when such
appointment is necessary. Authorizes the court to order the cost
of the review and report by the investigator to be paid for out
of the proceeds of the transaction or otherwise as the court may
direct, if the court determines that such payment would not cause
a hardship.
3)Adds bail to the list of unpaid debt permitted to be referred to
the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) for collection.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that a small claims court judgment may be enforced as
provided in the Enforcement of Judgments Law, which applies to
all civil judgments, as specified. Requires the clerk to collect
SB 556
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specified small claims fees.
2)Establishes a procedure by which a court may authorize a proposed
transaction involving community property where one or both
spouses lack legal capacity. Requires a conservator served
pursuant to specified provisions to appear at a hearing and
represent a spouse alleged to lack legal capacity for the
proposed transaction. Authorizes the court, in its discretion,
to appoint an investigator to review the proposed transaction and
report to the court regarding its advisability.
3)Provides that fines, state or local penalties, forfeitures,
restitution orders, or any other amounts imposed by a superior
court upon a person or any other entity that are due and payable
in an amount totaling no less than $100, in the aggregate, for
criminal offenses, may, no sooner than 90 days after payment of
that amount becomes delinquent, be referred by the court, the
county, or the state to the FTB for collection.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations analysis:
1)Likely minor increase in small claims court fee revenue and minor
court savings from recovery of court investigator costs.
2)Any additional costs for FTB to collect unpaid bail amounts will
be paid from the amounts recovered.
.
COMMENTS : This non-controversial bill, sponsored by the Judicial
Council, makes three technical and clarifying changes to improve
court operations.
The Small Claims Act states that judgments may be enforced like all
other judgments, but then specifies that the court may collect fees
for issuance of a writ of execution, abstract of judgment, and
application for an order of examination of a judgment debtor.
Other post-judgment enforcement proceedings, such as a claim of
exemption for which fees are charged statewide in general civil
actions, are not specifically mentioned for small claims
proceedings. As a result of this ambiguity, court practices
regarding small claims fees diverge across the state. This bill
clarifies that courts should charge small claims litigants all fees
associated with the enforcement of judgments, as is done in general
civil actions. This clarification will ensure uniformity across
the state.
The identical post-judgment fee provision was included in AB 1873
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(Lieu, 2008), which was vetoed for other reasons.
When one or both spouses lack legal capacity, a court may still
authorize a transaction involving community property. In this
case, the court may, in its discretion, appoint an investigator to
review the proposed transaction and report to the court regarding
its advisability. This bill provides that a court may only appoint
an investigator when the court deems that such an investigation is
necessary. The bill also allows the court to order the cost of the
review and report by the investigator to be paid out of the
proceeds of the transaction or otherwise as the court may direct.
However, in order to ensure that the spouses will not be harmed by
such charges, the bill rightly provides that the court may only
order the payment if the court determines that the payment would
not cause a hardship to anyone.
To assist in the collection of court-ordered debt, the courts use
two FTB collection programs use: The Tax Intercept Program
collects debt by intercepting state tax refunds and the
Court-Ordered Debt Program collects debt by sweeping bank accounts
and lottery winnings. Under current law, courts have explicit
authority to seek collection of unpaid bail amounts through the Tax
Intercept Program, but there is no such explicitly authority to use
the Court-Ordered Debt Program to collect unpaid bail. There does
not appear to be any reason for this disparate treatment. This
bill explicitly authorizes the courts to send unpaid bail amounts
to either FTB collection program.
AB 1389 (Committee on Budget) Chapter 751, Statutes of 2008
explicitly authorized the courts to send unpaid bail amounts to
either FTB collection program. AB 1389 was enacted into law, but
it was inadvertently chaptered out by the subsequent enactment of
AB 2928 (Spitzer) Chapter 752, Statutes of 2008. Since AB 1389 was
an urgency statute that took effect immediately upon the Governor's
signature and AB 2928 did not take effect until January 1, 2009,
the FTB collection clarification was in effect from September 30 to
December 31, 2008. This bill would fix the inadvertent chaptering
out.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0001946