Shopping on Main Street has never been easier for attorneys seeking quick and inexpensive access to legislative history materials. LIS legislative history compilations have been lauded by clients and courts for their complete gathering of California bill materials. Now, LIS’ previous compilations of legislative history materials are posted to our online store. At our online store, you will have, in a matter of a few minutes, 24/7, the following: All versions of the bill (introduced and amended) Chaptered version of the bill Final history Plus the following materials we searched for when we previously accomplished ... Read More >
Jul 8
California Proposes Changes to Elections Laws
The California Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting has introduced three bills in 2013 to affect the state’s elections laws. Assembly Bill 1417 would conform state law to federal law by requiring elections officials to send ballots and ballot materials to all military and overseas voters by the 45th day before the election if they have made a request for a ballot by that day, regardless of whether the 45th day before the election is a weekend or holiday and would make various minor and technical changes to the Elections Code. Assembly Bill 1418 would repeal the campaign statement requirement regarding public inspection and ... Read More >
Jul 8
California Sends Economic Development and Jobs Bill, Assembly Bill 93, to Governor
California Assembly Bill 93 is an Economic Development and jobs bill that makes various changes in the state tax system beginning in 2013-14. This bill was carried by the Assembly Committee on Budget and included a statement of legislative intent that the Legislature finds and declares the goal of California's economic development policy should be designed to create good jobs with middle class wages and benefits; target for assistance individuals with barriers to employment; and encourage businesses to invest and create jobs in California. The proposed statutory changes in AB 93 are related to the Governor's Budget proposal to address ... Read More >
Jul 3
Legislative Intent Service Meets the Research Needs of Law Firms and Offices
Today’s “Big Law” and “Medium Law” firms are transitioning into their professional futures by focusing on specific areas of practice and by limiting their in-house staffing and counsel, among other major changes to the practice of law. Whether your practice is national or state-wide, Legislative Intent Service, Inc. [“LIS”] is a legislative history and intent research law firm that can assist this transition into the new world facing old and new law practices. Areas of Practice: At LIS, we have researched almost every area of law, from civil, civil procedure, business, family and insurance to penal, probate, water, and vehicle, just to ... Read More >
Jun 27
Legislative Analysis of California Statutes
Legislative analysis of legislative history materials begins with a fundamental rule: to construe or interpret a statute, the court’s primary objective is to determine the legislative intent of the enactment; all other rules of construction yield to this rule. When the text of a statute is unambiguous and provides a clear answer, the courts generally go no further than that text. However, when a statute’s language supports multiple interpretations, then California law permits resort to extrinsic sources to ascertain legislative intent. This includes the legislative history and administrative interpretations of the language. While laws in ... Read More >
Jun 19
California Public Records Act Amendment Challenged
In our prior posting regarding the California Public Records Act (CPRA), we noted that as a budget trailer bill to this year's state budget bill, Assembly Bill 76 would make compliance with certain provisions of the CPRA optional for public agencies. The latest reports this afternoon state that the state legislature is changing its action because of popular criticism opposing this weakening of the CPRA. The Legislature will promote Senate Bill 71, which is also a budget trailer bill but does not contain the CPRA changes promoted in Assembly Bill 76. It is now up to Gov. Jerry Brown to decide if he will sign Assembly Bill 76 or Senate ... Read More >
Jun 19
California Public Records Act (CPRA) Amendment Limits Access to Public Records
The California budget package for the coming fiscal year included Assembly Bill 76, a budget trailer bill that would make compliance with certain provisions of the California Public Records Act (CPRA) optional for local agencies. A “budget trailer bill” is a measure carrying substantive law changes to implement the fiscal decisions reached in a particular year’s budget bill. Assembly Bill 76, carried by the Assembly Budget Committee, enacts various provisions to support the 2013 Budget Act. Under existing California law, CPRA requires state and local agencies to make their public records available to residents upon receipt of a request ... Read More >
Jun 5
Tracing your statute’s language — Yes, you can!
A statute’s language may have a fairly complicated history and the annotations accompanying the major code books published may not provide you with the specific changes that were legislated for each of the bills identified in the annotations for the statute. At this point, it becomes necessary to “trace” your language to find out which one legislative measure brought in your language of interest within the statute in question. The Statutes at Large for California go back to 1850 and you should be able to find these chapter books at your local law library. When the governor signs any bill into law, the secretary of state will assign a ... Read More >
May 17
CA Assembly Bill 188 of 2013 affects commercial property change of ownership under Proposition 13
Assembly Bill 188 proposes to revise California Proposition 13’s circumstances under which a “change in ownership” of real property owned by a legal entity is deemed to have occurred by closing a commercial property tax loophole to more accurately reflect when change of ownership takes place, thus recovering lost tax revenue. On May 13th, the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxationplaced this bill in suspense, perhaps stalling it permanently. This Committee’s analysis noted the following statements by the author of Assembly Bill 188, Assembly member Tom Ammiano: “California's current system for assessing and taxing property, as ... Read More >