Bill Summary for Bill Number SB12-175

Date: 05/01/2012

Final
BILL SUMMARY for SB12-175

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Votes: View-->	Action Taken:
Adopt prepared amendment L.006 (Attachment C). The Refer Senate Bill 12-175, as amended, to the Commi	Pass Without Objection PASS

04:31 PM -- Senate Bill 12-175

Representative Duran, sponsor, presented Senate Bill 12-175 concerning statutorily established time intervals. The reengrossed bill modifies current law to establish time intervals based on a "rule of seven" for various statutory legal processes. Seven-day intervals are used to compute filing deadlines and other significant dates following an initial act. The bill affects statutes relating to Colorado civil actions, criminal procedure, juvenile cases, appellate cases, municipal courts, probate, water court, adoption petitions, and other miscellaneous statutory time intervals. In general, but not in all cases, the timeframe for a responsive act is extended to the next seven-day interval, while the timeframe for certain notices (e.g., to a criminal defendant) and scheduling certain hearings is reduced to the next-lower seven-day interval. Certain statutory timeframes are not modified based on the need to conform with federal law or other implementation concerns.

Background. Under current law, time intervals between the initiation of a legal procedure and subsequent events, such as the deadline for filing responsive pleadings, are frequently set as a multiple of 10 days, or may be set as a number of months, a multiple of five days, or some other number of days specific to the procedure. Exceptions for weekends and holidays do not apply uniformly. Therefore, filing deadlines and other crucial dates are commonly calculated to fall on weekends under current law.

An example is Colorado's process to challenge spurious liens. Current law provides that a show cause order issued by a court require a lien claimant to appear not less than 10 days nor more than 20 days after service of the order. Senate Bill 12-175 proposes to modify this process to require appearance by the lien claimant not less than 14 days nor more than 21 days after service of the show cause order.

As of December 1, 2009, similar computation problems related to time intervals were largely eliminated in the federal court system by virtue of changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). Computation of time intervals under the present FRCP involves multiples of seven days, with subsequent events to occur on the same day of the week as the initiating act.

On December 14, 2011, the Colorado Supreme Court adopted Rule Change 2011(18), effective January 1, 2012, and Rule Change 2011(19), effective July 1, 2012. These actions by the Supreme Court adopt seven-day time intervals applicable to civil procedure, criminal procedure, juvenile cases, appellate cases, municipal courts, probate, adoption petitions, and other miscellaneous court rules. Many of the affected court rules correspond with statutes modified in a conforming manner by SB 12-175; however, some modified court rules have no corresponding statutory time limit, and some statutes modified by SB 12-175 have no corresponding court rule.

04:37 PM

Representative Duran responded to questions from the committee.

04:40 PM -- Richard Laugesen, representing the Colorado Bar Association, testified in support of the bill. Mr. Laugesen spoke about the need for the bill. He responded to questions from the committee.


BILL:	SB12-175
TIME:	04:49:35 PM
MOVED:	Duran
MOTION:	Adopt prepared amendment L.006 (Attachment C). The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:	Pabon
		VOTE
	DelGrosso
	Duran
	Kagan
	Lee
	Nikkel
	Pabon
	Ryden
	Sonnenberg
	Waller
	Barker	Excused
	Gardner B.

YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection


BILL:	SB12-175
TIME:	04:51:30 PM
MOVED:	Pabon
MOTION:	Refer Senate Bill 12-175, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a vote of 8-0, with 3 excused.
SECONDED:	Kagan
		VOTE
	DelGrosso	Yes
	Duran	Yes
	Kagan	Yes
	Lee	Yes
	Nikkel	Yes
	Pabon	Yes
	Ryden	Yes
	Sonnenberg	Excused
	Waller	Yes
	Barker	Excused
	Gardner B.	Excused

Final YES: 8 NO: 0 EXC: 3 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS

04:55 PM

The committee adjourned.