Judicial Council Invitations to Comment

The state's Judicial Council has issued a flurry of Invitations to Comment on Proposed Rules, Forms, Standards, and Legislation developed by the Council's various advisory committees.  With only a couple of exceptions, comments on all the proposals are due by June 20, 2011. The exception is a recirculation of a proposal relating to Statewide Uniform Fees for Telephone Appearances, comments on which are due by May 12.

The linked PDF document provides a summary of all the proposals and contains direct links to each individual proposal. A description of the legislative proposals (with links) follows.  

• Proposed Clean-Up Legislation on the Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (Leg 11-01):This is a proposal for Judicial Council–sponsored legislation to amend California’s Civil Discovery Act. The Judicial Council, along with the Consumer Attorneys of California and California Defense Counsel, sponsored jointly sponsored the prior legislation that resulted in the Electronic Discovery Act. (AB 5 of 2009). The Judicial Council's Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee proposes that the council consider sponsoring legislation to address certain gaps and omissions in the e-discovery legislation that was enacted. This clean-up legislation is proposed for introduction and enactment in 2012, and would become effective January 1, 2013.

• Probate: Notice to Creditors in Decedents’ Estates (Leg11-02): Advice to creditors of decedents’ estates in two Judicial Council form notices is incorrect under some circumstances and potentially misleading. However, statutes mandate the incorrect advice given in the forms. The Judicial Council's Probate and Mental Health Advisory Committee proposes to resolve this problem by recommending Judicial Council sponsorship of legislation to amend the statutes. This clean-up legislation is proposed for introduction and enactment in 2012, and would become effective January 1, 2013.