Legislative Update - May 6, 2011
JUDICIAL SELECTION COMMITTEE LEGISLATIVE DATABASE
Governor Paul LePage recently announced the seven members of his Judicial Selection Committee. This group advises the Governor on judicial nominations and will immediately get to work screening candidates for an open position in the Bangor District Court. The seven Committee members are: Michael Friedman, Esq., John Hobson, Esq., Gloria Pinza, Esq., Ann Robinson, Esq., District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau, Harold Steward II, Esq., and the Honorable Joshua Tardy.
LEGISLATIVE SCHEDULE
As you may have noticed, there has been a flurry of public hearings and work sessions scheduled in the past few weeks. Legislative leaders have instructed Committee Chairs to report out or request permission to carry-over all legislation by next Friday, May 13, 2011. Consequently, committees have been busy. We expect that the vast majority of bills for this legislative session will be reported out of committee or carried-over by the end of next week. There are always, however, a few bills that are considered after this deadline.
REGULATORY REFORM
LD 1, an omnibus regulatory reform bill, was voted unanimously out of Committee on April 28, 2011, and the language of this bill has received final sign-off from the Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform. This bill is considerably different than the laundry list of environmental regulatory reforms proposed by the Governor earlier this year. As indicated by the unanimous Committee vote, this bill is no longer controversial and makes mostly incremental changes. The bill has received mixed reviews, and some have stated publicly that this bill might actually increase regulatory burdens in some areas.
UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE
On May 4, 2011, the Judiciary Committee held a second work session on LD 325. This bill originally proposed allowing non-attorneys to represent parents and children in special education due process hearings before the Department of Education. This bill was amended by the Committee and turned into a resolve that directs the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council to convene a work group to examine the issue of non-attorney representation of parents and children in special education due process hearings. The Maine State Bar Association was successful in ensuring that a representative of the Bar Association would be included in this work group. The Committee voted unanimously to report out this now-resolve as “ought to pass as amended.”
UPCOMING ISSUES
An updated legislative database is linked to this weekly report for your information. It contains any newly introduced bills we have identified of interest to the MSBA, along with updated status listings of previously introduced bills. Those items highlighted in red indicate new changes since the last database was made available.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need specific information.
John Delahanty at 207-791-1222 or jdelahanty@pierceatwood.com
Avery Day at 207-622-6311 or aday@pierceatwood.com.
Click here to open the Legislative Database.