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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ind. Courts - Judicial mandate bill clears Indiana senate

The Paper of Montgomery County reports, in a story by Barry Lewis:

Freshman Sen. Phil Boots' (R-Crawfordsville) bill concerning judges' mandates passed out of the Senate by a 44-3 vote Tuesday on third reading and is now headed to the House.

The bill would need to be passed by the House in order to become law.

The bill was first heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee and passed 6-2 on Feb. 7. The bill states that if a county challenges a judges' mandate on funds, then the judges would be represented by the State Attorney General. Although the Attorney General would have fees, they should be a lot less than private practice attorneys.

Since authoring the bill, Boots added three other senators as co-authors. Over in the House, the bill will be sponsored by Rep. Linda Lawson (D-Hammond) and Rep. Ralph Foley (Martinsville).

"Judges are state employees and it only makes sense that they be represented by the State Attorney General," Boots said when the bill passed out of committee. "There would still be fees involved, but not the outrageous rates that some of the private attorneys are charging."

Boots originally authored a bill calling for the elimination of mandates altogether, but that bill will not be heard this year in committee. This amended bill is an attempt to get something on the books to help counties when battling judges in these types of cases.

Boots said that even if this bill is passed, it would have no impact on the current suit involving Montgomery County and three local judges.

The bill is SB 279. For background, start with this ILB report from Feb. 10th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 22, 2007 02:17 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Indiana Law