Well, both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have advanced bills that they have been working on to the respective bodies for floor action. The Senate Committee has completed work on the non unanimous jury bill, S. 279, by rewriting the bill to require an 11 of 12 majority to reach a verdict. The bill can be read here: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/calendar/sc100316.pdf.
(Scroll down to page 409). The bill sunsets this law on January 15, 2015. In the interim, the court administrator must report to both judiciary committees whether the number of hung juries or the average award of damages has changed; whether there has been an impact on medical malpractice cases; and any positive or negative impacts on the court system itself.
The House Judiciary Committee, for its part, has advanced H. 590. the foreclosure mediation bill, to the Calendar. It can be read here: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/calendar/hc100316.pdf. (Scroll to page 552). It has not changed from my report to you last week before I left town for my event at the ABA. Finally, and perhaps most significant of all, is H. 470, judicial restructuring. Read it here: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/calendar/hc100316.pdf. (Again scroll to page 440).
Here’s what I expect will happen this week. After the crossover deadline, the calendars of both chambers are full. That means most of the legislative day is spent, not in committee as usual, but on the floor in debate. The House and Senate must each vote up or down on its bills and advance (or not) them to the other chamber for work prior to the expected April 30th adjournment date. The other thing happening this week is the joint assembly to vote on the retention of Judges Durkin, Howard, and Toor. That will happen Thursday at 10:30. The only real committee work I see this of interest to us is later today (2:30) when the House Appropriations Committee is set to review H. 470. Remember that when Judiciary added back two probate judges (for a total of 8 but 7 FTEs), it needed to find the way to pay for that. Appropriations will try to resolve that today. That committee has a crossover deadline of this Friday, the 19th, after which the bill can be debated on the floor. There is still much to be done by the Judiciary Committee to assure all House members understand just what they are voting on and what the bill does and does not do! So, if Appropriations takes until this Friday to finish its work on the bill, debate will take place next week, probably beginning on Wednesday. Arrival of the bill in the Senate may be Tuesday, March 30th.
I’ll report what I learn from the Appropriations presentation later today and will continue to follow the progress of all three bills during the two days I’ll be in Montpelier this week. As you know our Mid Year Meeting is this week and I’ll be in Burlington on Thursday and Friday. Don’t forget we’re doing a one hour briefing and discussion on judicial restructuring on Friday from 10 to 11. The text of the bill has been uploaded to the materials for the Meeting and will be on the CD we’re giving to attendees. If you want to attend that session and follow along it may be smart to bring your laptop and the CD; printing out a 183 page bill is crazy! Anyway, as always, thanks for reading. Get in touch if you have questions. See you on Friday.
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