March 31, 2005

Probate bill wins House support; Senate vote expected soon
The TBA-backed probate reform bill passed the House on a 93-0 vote this week and moved forward in the Senate following passage by its Judiciary Committee. The bill is now before the Senate’s Calendar Committee, so a full floor vote is expected soon.

In the House, the legislation (HB1001/SB1162) picked up an additional amendment before passage. At the request of Rep. Frank Buck, D-Dowellton, the bill was amended to eliminate a provision providing for partial confidentiality of certain conservatorship records.

LLC reform bill wins committee support
The TBA-backed bill to reform the Limited Liability Company Act (SB421/HB1121) passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. We expect floor action on the bill next week.

The bill was prepared by the LLC Committee of the TBA’s Business Law Section. Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Nashville, and Rep. Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville, are the bill’s sponsors.

Domestic relations bill in House committee
The bar’s domestic relations bill (SB2091/HB2244), which passed the Senate unanimously last week, again will be before the House Children and Family Affairs Committee next week. At the request of its sponsor, the measure was pushed to next week’s calendar to give additional time for clearing up some confusion created by an incomplete explanation on a committee summary.

That confusion was focused on language in the bill pertaining to the role of court clerks in the child support system. The legislation actually just proposes removing language that had become obsolete by an act that became effective in 1999, because of federal requirements. Removing the wording will make the statute clearer and remove apparent contradictions. We are hopeful the bill will receive support of the committee next week.

Bill calling for contested, partisan judicial elections taken off notice
One of the bills sponsored by Rep. Dwayne Bunch, R-Cleveland, that would have required appellate and Supreme Court justices to run in contested, partisan elections was taken off notice in the Judicial Administration Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee this week. This action means that, at least for now, the sponsor has withdrawn the bill from consideration. A different bill that purported to do the same thing was earlier defeated in subcommittee.

Keep up-to-date on legislation of interest
The TBA bill tracking service lets you read abstracts of bills, check their status in both houses, find out who is sponsoring them and link to full versions of the legislation.

TBA Watch List Monitor close to 300 bills and resolutions of interest to the Tennessee legal community.

TBA Action List Monitor legislation in which the TBA has an interest of record — bills the TBA initiated, bills on which the TBA has taken a position or bills on which the TBA has policy.

Questions, comments? Contact TBA Legislative Counsel Steve Cobb at scobb@tnbar.org or TBA Executive Director Allan F. Ramsaur at aramsaur@tnbar.org