Judiciary Committee- House

Eighteen forty nine represented parks if you come to the table identify yourself and then you may proceed. Thank you madam chair I would like to also invite my friend attorney Chris Richey up with the. Certainly the refi. Right thank you madam chair and thank you committee a House bill fourteen forty nine was new issue was brought to me by Mr ruby he is a and I stated tourney in Conway and he has offices around the state of Arkansas currently there is no effective way to transfer certain smaller assets are made to the estate of a deceased person and this would allow the bank the opportunity to open up an account so that they could do that and I would like to have Mr repeat talk about his situation and experiences with his clients or why this bill is important. This review you're recognized please when you punch a button and state state your name so we'll have an on the record in the may proceed sure my name is Chris Richey R. I. P. P. Y.. In a thank you for a give me the opportunity to speak today my eyes it represented fox said our law firm is ruby steps associates were a law firm in central Arkansas the mainly practices in the estate planning and administration arena in the general purpose behind what we have called CarMax law is to assist Arkansas family men members in the administration of estates of their loved ones after they passed away it's named after a man named Patrick Shannon at CarMax who was not a client of mine I never had the opportunity to meet doctor come back but he was a professor of mathematics and statistics at the university of Arkansas they passed away in January of twenty eighteen very unexpectedly at home. I found that it might be beneficial for the committee to understand the purpose behind the bill to kind of get a little bit of background of the very basic background the probate process when somebody passes away in Arkansas and it is time to administer their estate most people would refer to that as the probate process somebody has to be appointed as an executor or administrator of the estate depending on whether that person passed away with or without a will there are some estates in Arkansas that if there under a certain monetary threshold a in a in Afghans can go down to the county clerk's office and file what is called an affidavit for collection of smallest state and how the functions is that if you if you pass away and your probate of all assets are less than one hundred thousand dollars your surviving spouse or family member can go down to the county clerk's office and filed the smallest state affidavit and they can carry that affidavit to banks or title companies or other financial institutions in order to acquire the funds from the accounts of the deceased purpose person the logic behind this is we don't want as a public policy perspective we didn't want to grieving family members and surviving spouses to have to go through that headache and legal costs for whatever fairly modest size a state so long before I was practicing law this was codified into Arkansas statute and the logistical problem that we run into in the whole reason why represented hawk tonight crafted this bill together was it because when Dr Carmack passed away he had one more paycheck from university of Arkansas central Arkansas that was due to him in the tune of a few thousand dollars because there are federal banking regulations that when somebody passes away and they have funds due to them from a job or refund of a insurance policy or an over payment of utility the check can't be make it made out to the person because that person's passed away so that commonly make the check out. To the estate of the deceased person so we went through multiple months of trying to negotiate with banks and to get them to cash this last paycheck and we weren't able to do so we so we end up having to open up a probate and get Dr CarMax surviving spouse leaves the car back to point is the administrator it took a ten or eleven months just to cash this last paycheck so what we're requesting is that the smallest state affidavit statute simply be amended to allow Arkansas banks to open a state accounts within an affidavit a small estate for administration has been filed with the county clerk's office that they can open an account in the name of the estate and that have the affidavit distribute the funds either pursuant to the instructions that were left in the decedent's last will and testament or following the distribution of assets in Arkansas intestate code our situation with doctor Carmack with several thousand dollars that's worth doing doing something about but the most common way that we run into this situation and what's really frustrating is usually the checks or ten or fifteen dollars because it somebody who just barely over paid a utility expense or was pro rating a an insurance policy throughout the year and then passed away in the middle of the year and so it's very rarely worth anybody's time uh but it creates a lot of logistical headaches for surviving family members who were in the grieving process and are simply trying to take care of what is a very basic banking issue so in our law firm we crafted this we kind of joke when we were presented that in the grand scheme of things of that I come before the Arkansas house and Senate were this is small we understand it's small potatoes and it wouldn't surprise me if the if the people that the committee didn't even remember this if you years from now but I assure you that this small step is going to assist thousands of Arkansas residents every year just while they're grieving and try to administering to the states of people who have passed away. Members are there any questions. Represented called you're recognized for a question. Thank you madam chair and thank you for bringing this bill it seems like it gets that an issue that needs to be addressed I'm curious are there any limits that it looked like there any in here maybe there are by reference to what the done with this checking account you could I assume receive money could you would you pay money from that and how much money could you receive and what if it put you over the threshold sure so if if the probate uble estate maintains it stays under a hundred thousand dollars then you could work out of the estate accounts our proposal would be you could work out of the estate account only utilizing a small estate affidavit if it got over a hundred thousand dollars in Arkansas probate code is pretty clear that you have to open a probate administration and have an administer or and executor assigned in that that would be under the purview of whatever the circuit court judge in that county whoever gets assigned to. Your follow up. I think it does answer my question I I guess I just wanna make sure that that's those were already taken care of somewhere in code and and we're not creating situation without accounting for that yes we do that's right doesn't change the threshold that the the the I can quote it exactly but the affidavit of collection small state statute says that if the probate estate already has that one hundred thousand dollar threshold in it minus a couple of statutory allowances like minor pieces of personal property in debt so we're not changing the accounting side of the probate code at all is it a threshold as of a certain date the date of death the end of the day death yes okay thank you. Members any other questions. Time motion at the proper time. Seeing no other questions representing part you're recognized close for your bill we have no one else was signed up to speak for or against. Thank members your intake Committee and I close from a bill representing Smith you're recognized. I moved to pass. Members we have a do pass motion on the floor is there any discussion of the motion. All in favor please say aye. Any opposed say no. Motion carries congratulations you've passed your bill the manager thank you Committee I appreciate yes thank you very much. Represent is Smith you're recognized to present House Bill fourteen twenty four. Thank you madam chair Brandt Smith for the record I'm running a bill for the Arkansas district judges council may I remove my mass are certainly I think you're far enough away for okay any for members I don't wanna yes yes. Save yourselves but this this bill came to me from A judgeship in Jonesboro Arkansas some of you may know judge Tommy Fowler and it basically does exactly what the title talks about an act concerning the administration of the oath of office and for other purposes but. A judge for our. Indicated to me that sometimes there are situations where they need a district judge who is not authorized to administer an oath of office to a new newly appointed or newly elected official and so that's all this bill does it's a one and a half pages long and the I'll be happy to take questions. Members are there any questions. Seeing no questions we have no one who is signed up to speak for against the bill you're recognized close for your bill I'm close for the bill and a move do pass. Members we have a motion to do pass on the floor is there any discussion discussion all in favor please say aye. Any opposed motion carries congratulations you've passed your bill. Senate guess what you're on deck. Represented Gazaway will take up the rest of our time. This afternoon there are three Bills. Two of them have amendment so we'll start with house bill thirteen twenty one. And in that amendment is being passed out to you at this time. Also member's house bill thirteen twenty one has a fiscal impact statement so if you want to pull up the physical impact statement on your device and take a look at it. All right represented guess where you're recognized to present the amendment to house bill thirteen twenty one. Thank you madam chair committee members House Bill thirteen twenty one is amended and I hope that all of you have the amendment front of you now is a bill to allow for and in life photograph to be admitted during the state's case in chief in a prosecution in a homicide case hang on just a second. My thirteen twenty one is the critical infrastructure bill I guess it would help us started with the right bill manager it might in the end let's adopt you want to get your amendment adopted and then we'll back up and go to that thirty thirteen twenty one yes thirteen twenty one The Amendment on thirteen twenty one simply adds co sponsors there's a. A good group of house co sponsors and Senate co sponsors and that is the entire amendment. And I make a motion. Do pass on the amendment members we have a motion to adopt the amendment any discussion all in favor say aye. Any oppose motion carries now you may present your bill as amended all right thirteen twenty one thirteen twenty one members this bill addresses critical infrastructure in our criminal code currently we do not have a definition and the Arkansas criminal code of critical infrastructure and so what this bill does is it defines critical infrastructure and as you'll see there are several items that we list as being critical infrastructure everything from water intake and water treatment facilities food processing and manufacturing facilities natural gas companies pipelines railroad property there's a very extensive list of property that we as defined for purposes the crimp criminal code as critical infrastructure. Now you may ask why are we doing this and. What we have seen even very recently I think evidences that why we have a need for this law if you think back to a just a few weeks ago when we had the ice storm in Texas when the pipelines froze we saw hundreds of thousands if not millions of people that experienced rolling blackouts were without power some which for several days. And so we we know the types of devastation that can happen if there's a disruption to critical infrastructure and so I you know that being one example if you look at what happened on Christmas day when the with the bomb in Nashville it took out the eighteen anti communication center that affected nine one one service for several states that was out for several days and course communications and telecommunications facilities are defined as critical infrastructure for purposes of this bill and then if you look as recently as the Superbowl currently there were a couple of individuals who attempted to poison the water supply in the city of Tampa Bay just prior to the Super Bowl so sadly this is something that attacks are critical infrastructure things that we're seeing more and more often and I think evidence why we need this bill. But before I go into any further explanation I do want to say that there's a broad coalition of support for this bill and I just I'm gonna give you some of the names the American council for engineering companies the American fuel and petroleum or petrochemical manufacturers the American petroleum institute Arkansas electric electric cooperatives Arkansas independent producers and royalty owners Arkansas poultry federation the prosecuting attorney's association. The society of professional engineers the state chamber of commerce associated industries of Arkansas eighteen anti enter G. and southwestern electric power company so again a very broad coalition of support from those industries that help provide us with critical infrastructure. And so. Now what the bill actually does so we define critical infrastructure for purposes of the criminal code and then we reference it in the criminal mischief and criminal trespass statutes and so criminal mischief statutes are simply destruction of property and so for the varying levels of criminal mischief that we which is existing law in the criminal code which is essentially destruction of property we say for those burying levels of criminal mischief grimaced in the first degree criminal mischief and second agree that if you committed against criminal and infrastructure critical infrastructure then certain penalties will apply and we do the same thing for criminal trespass if the property is marked clearly with a fence or if there are signs on the property that make it clear that this is represented area and this is critical infrastructure then we add that to the criminal trespass statute is to say you shouldn't be here and if you do there will be penalties associated with that. So with that I hope that explains the bill and I'm happy to answer any questions. Members are there any questions. I see no questions we have no one who is signed up to speak for against the bill represented guess what you're recognized to close for your bill thank you madam chair thank you colleagues again I think this is a very important bill given what we're seeing in our society again it has a broad coalition of support and I would make a motion do pass as amended. Members we have a motion to do pass as amended on the floor is there any discussion. All in favor of the motion police say aye. Any opposed I seven motion has carried congratulations you have passed your bill as amended thank represented guess what let's move to House Bill thirteen twenty three you must be excited about that and since we started off with it. Of members there is a before you on that bill an amendment I believe it has been passed out to you. And so represented Gazaway we will take up that amendment first and I will recognize you to do that at the start thank you madam chair so as I started to explain earlier. The Amendment on this bill is basically now or is the bill itself the the prior bill that we had that language will be stricken except for the Legislative findings and the Basically the substance of the bill will be replaced by the amendment so when I explain the amendment that will be an explanation of the bill. So what this bill does is it would create what's called the Arkansas in life photograph act this was modeled partly off of a bill that recently passed in the state of Tennessee. And what I would do is it would allow a criminal prosecution for the state during their case in chief to introduce and in life photograph of the deceased in a homicide case. And. I think that's important because from a prosecutorial standpoint in these homicide cases and I've done several of them. The young typically the only reference that the jury has during a homicide prosecution of the alleged victim in those cases are either crime scene photographs which sadly are often very gruesome or autopsy photographs which are not real pleasant to look at either and so what we want to do with this bill. Is to recognize the person who had of a homicide victim and allow them and their families the same treatment that we give to every other crime victim of with with respect any other crime and so what I would tell you is that with respect to any other case the victim has a right to be present in the court room during that case. And of course with a homicide victim of a homicide victim is deceased. And so they don't have the ability to be there they don't have the ability to be appropriately represented and so the way that they are represented in their personhood at that trial during the state's case in chief are by these gruesome crime scene photos and by the autopsy photos and that does not in my opinion. Adequately represent the interests of victims in homicide cases and so what this building is very simple so looking at the amendment. Would allow in a homicide case now the deceased person in the deceased for persons family a right to have a photograph depicting the deceased as they appeared in life before the crime occurred admitted and displayed at trial in the state's case in chief if the photograph is submitted by the prosecution and it's reasonable accurate and appropriate. And we. Say we we wanna make very clear we're not trying to impede upon a judge's authority or their ability to control the court room role for three of the rules of evidence gives a balancing test as to the admissibility of this evidence and that will still apply the judge will still have that ability to make those decisions and then the second paragraph says in the course of making those decisions the court can limit the size of the photograph the length of time that the photograph can be displayed in the judge can give a limiting instruction to the jury about the weight that this photograph is to be afforded and so we feel like that is an appropriate balance that respects homicide victims and their families so that they can be appropriately Representative trial. And I hope that adequately explains the Amendment. Members are there any questions on the amendment. Seeing no questions would you like to move to adopt the your amendment thank you madam chair I would moved that the amended amendment be adopted. Thank members I have a motion to adopt the amendment on the floor any discussion. All in favor please say aye. Any opposed motion carries your amendment has been adopted in of course now you can move to your bill. Since since the bill is essentially the amendment not grant. Belabor the point anymore and I would make a motion do pass as amended. Members we have a motion to do pass as amended is there any discussion of the motion. Seeing no discussion we have no one who signed up to speak for against all in favor of do pass as amended police say aye. Any post a note motion carries your bill has been adopted I mean passed as amended. No member's let's turn to House Bill fifteen oh six. House Bill fifteen oh six there is a fiscal impact statement if you would like to take a second to look at that. And represent guess where you'll be recognized to. Present this bill at your. Thank you madam chair. So this is a bill that has the speaker's name on it Speaker I asked me to run this for M. and basically all the bill does is it amends Arkansas Code five twenty four two oh one. To include a hoax bomb. in the use of a hoax substance we've seen these things and many of you have heard these things where many years ago there was a kind of a. We've made that happen where people were sending white powder in the mail and and threatening anthrax and that sort of thing. And so in response to that there is a statute created for a hoax substance but what we've also seen if there are people who threaten hoax bombs in will use devices that are that appear to be a bomb that call the bomb squad to be called out that. because law enforcement a lot of trouble and then it turns out not to be anything and so this would group a hoax bomb and treat it the same way that we treat a hoax substance going back to the national instant item of your guys may have seen the news but when there was after there was the real bomb that blew up in downtown Nashville and the communication center was destroyed the shortly thereafter there was another suspicious truck that passes but supposedly had a bomb and it I don't think that that was ultimately the case but we know people do these things and so we want to treat this the same way that we treat a hoax substance. Members are there any questions represented Gazaway. We have no one who signed up to speak for against the bill represented Gazaway you're recognized closed the bill I'm close for the bill make a motion to pass members we have a motion to do pass on the floors or any discussion. All in favor of the motion to do pass police say aye. Any opposed say no motion carries congratulations you've passed your bill thank you manager thank you Committee. Members that takes care of our agenda for this Thursday afternoon let me give you work a list of what we'll be hearing on Tuesday and in light of the resolution we passed on the house floor. You realize will be off on the twenty fourth and twenty fifth wheel Tuesday afternoon the twenty third hi my been born at night but I wasn't born last night and I'm suspecting none of you were wanting to come to house judiciary on Tuesday afternoon the twenty third. We have and I do. You'll be the only one will appoint you chair represented Richmond with that being said and I'm I'm kind of taking your pulse as to how you want to handle this we can be here on Tuesday the twenty third because we do have a number Bills certainly our our build list is longer than most committees or we can start adding some bills wanted to steal my car to see stronger I think we can do it this is going to be a matter of maybe staying a little later on a Tuesday adding some additional bills on the Thursday but if I don't hear anybody just jumping up and down so I know they want to stay on the twenty third I'm going to move those bills off the twenty third and start pursuing a map to other days set meet with the committee's approval. Okay that is what we'll do so with that on Tuesday March the night and I will try to get these out to you there may be a few that get added between now and Tuesday but here the bills for Tuesday March the ninth so sharpen your pencils and here we go House Bill ten ninety eight. House Bill fifteen fifty eight. House Bill eleven sixty two. House Bill fifteen fifty. House Bill fifteen sixty one. House Bill fifteen eighty eight. House Bill fifteen ninety three House Bill sixteen oh four Senate bill one seventy Senate bill three eleven there may be some more Senate bills that will come to us. The if I add those I will let you know over the weekend and I will send you a text to confirm that and then that will leave us next Thursday on the eleventh we will have. Right now six bill set up for next Thursday there may be some more that. Hope you have a great weekend