Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Things got off to a bit of a slow start this week with H. 413, collateral consequences our only bill up yesterday. The House Judiciary Committee has done a good job of hearing from all parties with an interest in the bill. There is anew draft version which the committee should soon be reviewing. The only remaining issue I see if where the database or collection of collateral consequences will be housed and who will be responsible for updating it. I think when those issues are resolved the bill could be on its way to the house floor for a vote. The VBA Board of Managers, by the way, supported this bill before the ABA House of Delegates back in January 2010.

So far today I’ve had the opportunity to visit the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time this session. Since they have mainly work on criminal law related issues, and since those issues are well covered by the AGs, the States Attorneys and the Office of the Defender General, I usually don’t follow those bills. But today the committee began work on S. 263, the bill that would allow assistant judges to sit with magistrates in child support contempt proceedings. Bennington AJ Jim Colvin testified by phone in favor of the bill. Pat Gabel, Court Administrator, spoke to the committee about the availability of assistant judges, who are able to decide when and in which cases or courts they choose to sit. I was asked to testify even though I was not on the witness list and did my best to summarize the 20 comments I received from members of our Family Law Section back in December. I submitted those comments from which I redacted the names of the writers. I think the committee plans to return to this bill on Friday.

This afternoon, House Judiciary will return to H. 618, the bill relating to exclusive jurisdiction over delinquency proceedings by the Family Division of the Superior Court. I’m still not sure where this one will go if it moves at all. Tonight, of course, is the public hearing on the retention of six superior court judges. There has been a lot of press inviting members of the public to testify; let’s see who shows up. More tomorrow on the outcome of tonight.

Thanks for reading.