ISBA Statehouse Review for April 14, 2016

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Judicial Retention (House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 20), Illinois Administrative Procedure Act (House Bill 4372), The Parentage Act of 2015 (House Bill 4447), Income shares and child support (House Bill 3982), New filing fee (Senate Bill 3162) and IMDMA cleanup (House Bill 1190). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Judicial Retention. House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment  20 (Cassidy, D-Chicago) creates “Independent Judicial Review Commissions” of 12 to review and recommend retention of sitting judges who wish to seek retention. If at least seven members of the commission find the judge qualified, the judge will be retained for another full term. If a judge fails to get recommended, then he or she must seek retention in that general election and receive affirmative votes from 60% of the electors on retention.

An IJRC will be created in each Judicial District for supreme court and appellate court retentions in that district. An IJRC will be created in each circuit for the retention of its circuit judges

Each IJRC must consist of 12 members. All members of an IJRC must be residents of their district or circuit. Six members will be appointed as follows:

Three members of each commission shall be appointed by the Attorney General and three by the next officer not affiliated with the same political party as the Attorney General in the following order: Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minority leader of the House of Representatives.

The Supreme Court shall appoint the other six members of an IJRC.

The Supreme Court shall establish rules for the conduct of each commission, including, but not limited to, the submission of public comments, the disclosure documents, and a process to appeal a decision of a commission.

HJRCA 20 failed in House Judiciary Committee on a 5-6 vote yesterday. This doesn’t necessarily mean the concept is dead.

Illinois Administrative Procedure Act. House Bill 4372 (Andersson, R-Geneva) amends the Administrative Review Article to ensure that litigants appealing an administrative decision to the appellate court don’t get thrown out jurisdictionally because of a scrivener’s error, such as naming “The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund” instead of “The Board of Trustees of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.” On second reading in the House.

The Parentage Act of 2015. House Bill 4447 (Burke, D-Oak Lawn) amends the recently enacted Parentage Act of 2015. That Act was drafted to be in compliance with a proposed Illinois Supreme Court Rule that required the name and date of birth of children to be replaced with their initials and year of birth. This proposed Supreme Court Rule (now rescinded) also required that child support orders contain only the last four digits of a child’s and parents’ social security number. It is not possible to effectively administer the Title IV-D child support program that requires compliance with federal law and cooperation with other states without this necessary personal information. House Bill 4447 corrects this problem by requiring the needed personal information but requires that this information be non-public.

The Act did not contain the phrase “the allocation of parental responsibilities” as created by the recent rewrite of the IMDMA. This amendment would replace the word “custody” where applicable with “the allocation of parental responsibilities” to use the same terminology and to be consistent with the IMDMA.
 
House Bill 4447 clarifies the required notices on the acknowledgment of parentage form. House Bill 4447 also provides that any voluntary acknowledgment or denial or rescission of acknowledgement of parentage that was completed before the effective date of the Act is valid if it met all criteria for validity at the time it was signed.
 
In the section concerning temporary orders, House Bill 4447 specifies that “child” includes a non-minor child with a disability to be consistent with the IMDMA and to provide for non-minor disabled children born to unmarried couples. House Bill 4447 applies to all pending actions and proceedings commenced before its effective date for issues on which a judgment has not been entered. On second reading in the House.

Income shares and child support. House Bill 3982 (Burke, D-Oak Lawn) moves Illinois into the majority of other states that have an “income shares” model for adjudicating child support. On third reading in the House.

New filing fee. Senate Bill 3162 (Harmon, D-Oak Park) creates a new $9 fee to defray the cost associated with electronic filing and other e-business programs and case management systems in the circuit courts. It will be assessed against all civil litigants and defendants who have been convicted of a traffic, ordinance, conservation, or criminal charge. The court may waive the fee in appropriate cases, and it may not be charged in any matter for a change of venue nor in any proceeding to review the decision of any administrative officer, agency, or body. It sunsets on January 1, 2022. On second reading in the Senate.

IMDMA cleanup. House Bill 1190 (Burke, D-Oak Lawn) is a cleanup of last year’s rewrite of the IMDMA for technical cleanup for such things as referring to a section that no longer exists, etc. It does contain some substantive changes. On second reading in the House.

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Chris Bonjean
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