Important News from the ACBA Family Law Executive Committee: SB 917 and SB 1255

Findings and Orders After Hearing and Clarifying in re marriage of Davis

The ACBA Family Law Committee would like its members and any interested parties to know about SB 917 and SB 1255 – two bills which are currently pending in the State Legislature – and could impact all of us in Family Law Court.

SB 917 – Findings and Orders After Hearing
SB 917 would “require” the court, at the end of a Family Law hearing, to give each party who is present a written order that sets forth all of the orders made in open court during that hearing. It would also require the Judicial Council to “adopt a rule of court and any forms necessary to implement these provisions.” In other words, the court would have to provide a Findings and Order After Hearing, after each hearing, in each matter heard during that session. The bill does not specify who would draft the Order.

Importantly (and alternatively), Section 219(d) states that the court could require the parties or attorneys to draft this order after hearing, (at the hearing) or ask the parties or counsel to draft a more detailed Order After Hearing, afterwards, but only after a proposed order is prepared by the court.

Right now the bill has been placed in an Appropriations “Suspense File” which means that it has been determined this bill would be expensive to implement. We believe the date this bill will be heard and voted on is May 27, 2016.

Here is the link where you can read the actual bill, see the history, read the analysis of the bill and more.

SB 1255 – Clarifying in re marriage of  Davis
SB 1255 is the Date of Separation Amendment to Retroactive Application, the legislation attempting to clarify the Supreme Court’s ruling in in re marriage of Davis. The text of the bill, the amended text, the history and analysis can be found here.

This is the time to send your comments on these bills! Anyone interested may send comments to ACBA Family Law Committee member Alexcis Wichtowski who will be appointed the Assistant Legislative Liaison to FLEXCOM (Family Law Section Executive Committee of the California State Bar). She will direct your letters and/or emails to FLEXCOM, and they will be sent to the California Legislature.

Or, you could write directly to your State Representative: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.

For more information on the ACBA Family Law Section, and to join for only $35, please visit: https://alamedacountyb.wpengine.com/Sections/FamilyLaw.aspx