Legislation that was enacted relating to the courts and legal profession of significance included SB 10 (Dunn) permitting the transfer from the counties to the state of court facilities with substantial risk seismic rating, provided the county retains liability; SB 56 (Dunn) requiring, upon legislative appropriation, 50 additional superior court judgeships allocated to various courts in accordance with uniform standards established by the Judicial Council; SB 262 (Dunn) providing the State Bar with greater flexibility to hire an accounting firm to conduct the annual audits of its financial statements; SB 506 (Poochigian) providing confidentiality of voter registration information to state and federal judges and court commissioners; AB 1806 (Assembly Budget Committee) providing for an increase of 8.5 percent for judicial compensation in 2006-07 and allowing the Habeas Corpus Resource Center to increase the number of attorneys handling capital habeas corpus appointments from 30 to 34; AB 1995 (Koretz) clarifying existing law by allowing trial court employees to inspect any personnel file used for employment decisions; AB 2301 (Assembly Judiciary Committee) facilitating compliance with professional responsibilities of lawyers by promoting voluntary charitable giving to support legal services programs; AB 2864 (Harman) extending certain statutes of limitations to conform to more general rules for calculating legal time periods; and AB 3017 (Assembly Judiciary Committee) creating a non-exhaustive list of costs associated with a change of venue for a criminal trail which must be reimbursed to the receiving county by transferring county.
Vetoed legislation of note included AB 2227 (Chu) establishing a Blue Ribbon Panel on Language Access in courts to make recommendations regarding court interpreter issues; and AB 2302 (Assembly Judiciary Committee) providing for court interpreters when needed for those parties in family, domestic violence and other civil matters who require assistance with English.
