House Judiciary Committee Part 2
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Jack Mcnulty
Unverified
0:00
Anything else? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jack McNulty. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and member of the committees. My name is Jack McNulty. I am the lobbyist for the Arkansas Bar Association.
I have had the privilege of working with the legislature on behalf of the Bar Association since 2003. The Bar Association is made up of a little over 5,000 attorneys from around the state. They have a great variety of interests from real estate to environmental to personal injury on the plaintiff's side, personal injury on the defense side, and if you can think of a practice of law, I guarantee you there is at least one member and probably at least five to ten members of the association that are interested in that area.
We are primarily interested out here in matters that affect the administration of justice or the practice of the law. It is a voluntary association and so the attorneys who are members of the association, in addition into paying the dues for the Bar Association also pay a license fee to the Arkansas Supreme Court and we are primarily governed by the Arkansas Supreme Court. They use that money for things from the bar exam to make sure that people are competent
to practice law to professional discipline to continuing legal education to help for lawyers and judges who have alcohol and mental problems and just, you know, things relating to the regulation of practice law. We have a couple of bills that we will have out here this year primarily which improve some areas of the Uniform Commercial Code but also some others. If there is ever anything that I can do as far as helping you to get information and
answer questions, I hope you will not hesitate to
Matthew Haas
Unverified
2:12
call on me. Thank you. Matt Haas. Hello,
Speaker 7
2:24
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. My name is Matthew Haas. I'm the Executive Director of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association. Sometimes
Speaker 8
2:30
you might hear us referred to as ATLA or sometimes just simply the trial lawyers. We have about 1,000 attorneys across the state that represent the civil side of practice, not the criminal side, generally speaking, and we represent the individuals of the civil side.
civil side, so usually not the corporations or insurance companies. Have members that practice all across the state in about any area of the law you can think of. Always have experts. Our primary interest is making sure everyone has equal access to justice, no matter how thick your wallet is, so always here to help, and please let us know if you have any questions. Lisa McGee. Thank you. I'm Lisa McGee.
Speaker 11
3:14
I'm an attorney with the Arkansas Department of Human Services. We touch a bunch of people's lives across the state. If you have any questions, let me know. My primary area is in child welfare and adult abuse. We have a pretty aggressive package this legislative session. Some of the bills will hit in here and some will hit over in children and youth. If you have any questions about the department, let me know, and let me know, and we'll try to provide assistance for you. Cori Gentry.
Speaker 15
3:44
Good morning. I'm Lieutenant Cori Gentry with the Arkansas State Police. I will be the legislative liaison for the State Police, so if you have any questions doing anything to do with State Police, let me know. This is Major J.R. Hankins. He is with Highway Patrol. He'll also help you with any issues of State Police. that's everybody
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
4:05
on the list if anybody show up afterwards might want to introduce themselves to the committee thank you all very much committee everybody's always more than willing to help out
if you've got any questions so I'm sure anybody that introduced themselves today wouldn't have any problem helping you out with something if you had a question about one of their bills or their departments I think now Patrick wanted to make some comments to you
Speaker 18
4:33
all about the Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First I'll make a couple of introductions. I'm Patrick Ralston. I'm the committee staff for this, the staff analyst for this committee. This is my second time with House and Senate Judiciary.
I have probably my tenth session in service of the Bureau of Legislative Research. Back here in the back hiding is Brent Gasper. He is the attorney for the Judiciary Committees, and he is the one that most of you are going to talk to about drafting your legislation. He handles most of the stuff that comes through here. Brett, I think you're a former prosecutor. You're an assistant prosecutor, deputy? And assistant attorney general as well. Okay.
And so Brett is the person that is actually going to help you make the law. Here next to me is Judy Steelman. She is the secretary for the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. She is a tremendous help to everyone on this committee with the logistics of it. So if you can't get a hold of me, you can usually get an answer from her, either where I am or what's going on.
So I've sent out a staff services memo to you all on e-mail. I'll make sure that we have a paper copy of it next time we come in here. And just if you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to contact me or Judy. If you need drafting, of course, you can contact Brent. But we are delighted to be back here and working with the Judiciary Committee. I will tell you that we do provide coffee on a self-serve basis over here.
You notice I underlined self-serve, because staff is usually pretty busy with trying to get your meeting put together, so we invite you to come get the coffee, and we'll make more when you need it. I will address this to the audience. The coffee is primarily made for the members. We are always open to share with the audience, but ask that you be mindful of that. We ran out of coffee this morning before the members even showed up.
And so, you know, if you're going to bring your big gulp, revenue tax is right next door. And so, anyway, regarding many of you, especially you returning members, know that we are – this is the first time we've gone paperless in this meeting, in this committee. It is a challenge, and I recognize that some of you have some tablets that are doing crazy things in front of you, resizing themselves. We're going to work through this.
This is an initiative that I believe Representative Williams pioneered this year. As is the House, we are committed to it. That's the reason you don't have paper backups in front of you. We're going to do something that I think this committee will be able to knock out very efficiently, and that is that in our next meeting, which will be next Tuesday, we're
going to teach everybody how to log on themselves, and that way we're going to try to get the process going smoother. I'll have IT folks in here. We're going to get you all way up to speed. In fact, you're going to set the curve for how committee handles these things. And so with that, anything I can do for you, any help that I can give, any question I can answer or waffle on, please give me a call, and I'd be happy to try to get you an answer.
My office is over in the research division with Judy. It's kind of a little darkened dorm room, and you are always welcome. The door is always open. So please, anything I can do, let me know.
Speaker 22
8:53
Thank you. Please don't take the tablets with you, and the house staff will hunt you
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
9:03
down. I don't see anybody here
to present any bills today, so it looks like we're done for today. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Slinger? All in favor? All opposed? Motion meeting adjourned.
Agenda
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Speakers
Jack Mcnulty
Unverified
Matthew Haas
Unverified
Speaker 7
Speaker 8
Speaker 11
Speaker 15
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
Speaker 18
Speaker 22