Family Law Section

Minutes August 13, 2002

In Attendance:

• Commissioner Susan Bradford
• Karma Dixon
• Commissioner Scott Hadley
• Marcie Keck
• Louise Knauer
• Randy Ludlow
• Howard Lundgren
• Judge Larry Jones
• Lori Nelson
• Stewart Ralphs
• Adam Trupp

Excused:

1. Minutes. Approval of the minutes for April and May was tabled until the next meeting.

2. Budget/Section Finances. The Section account balance is $1029.30. That does not reflect the new membership fees.

3. Schedule of Executive Committee Meetings. The Tuesday meeting time has been a problem for several people. Marci moved that we change the meeting day to the second Wednesday of the month beginning in January. Lori seconded the motion. It passed unanimously. That will allow the Commissioners and Judges to be able to adjust their future calendars to enable them to attend. Stewart will contact the Bar and reserve the room and arrange the food.

4. Appointment of Section Representative for Online Court Assistance Project. We need to replace Rex Olsen who had served as our representative. The purpose is to update the Online Court forms. Louise Knauer volunteered and was unanimously approved.

5. Dialogue on Freedom. The vote regarding financial support to the program was 7 opposed and 4 in favor. The reason for the opposition was the concern about the budget.

The program matches attorneys with a member of executive and the legislature to go into every high school government or civics class. There is a specific topic that will be discussed. The discussions will take place during the week of September 11. More volunteers are needed. If you wish to volunteer, you are encouraged to contact the Utah State Bar office.

6. Committees.

a. Membership Stewart handed out a list of the membership. It was noted that Marilyn Moody Brown had also resigned. We have 6 positions we need to fill, including the representatives for the 5th District, 4th District, and possibly for the 6th, 7th, and 8th Districts if Helen would prefer to fill an at-large position. Connie Mower is apparently practicing in that area and has indicated interest in staying involved. We also have 3 at-large vacancies and the Judge position.

It was suggested that the Membership committee contact the presiding judge in the Third District to ask for a judge willing to serve. Judge Hilder has been very supportive of domestic issues, as have Judge Peuler and Judge Fratto. We need to emphasize the importance of the input from the judiciary and ask that the person be committed to attend.

The Legal Assistant Division renewed their request for membership. Stewart indicated that they want to participate in CLE, are willing to pay dues and do not ask for voting rights or membership on the Executive Committee. Stewart presented the by-laws to show where changes would have to be made. He also presented a copy of the by-laws for the ADR section which do allow for the Legal Assistant Division to have membership.

There was substantial discussion about the issue. It was pointed out that the LAD has brought this to the Executive Committee each year for some time. Karma pointed out that last year we added them to the listserve for notification of our CLE luncheons and seminars. Judge Jones questioned why we would not want to allow the membership. There was considerable discussion about limitations and other potential requests.

Judge Jones moved to amend the by-laws at the annual meeting in May. Howard seconded the motion. Stewart will draft the language to include a requirement that the vote will be of a majority of those present and that any qualified organization for membership must be affiliated with the Utah State Bar in either a Section or Division.

The Membership committee includes Stewart Ralphs, Helen Christian, Louise Knauer and Judge Jones. They will meet to review those who have applied for membership and will bring those names to the Executive Committee at the next meeting(?)

b. CLE subcommittee. The CLE luncheons need to be determined and set up. We need to get them on the Web calendar. Karma agreed to chair the subcommittee with Randy Ludlow, Stewart Ralphs and Adam Trupp as members. ADR wants to have a joint session. The CLE subcommittee will meet to have something set up for the September luncheon.

c. Legislative. The Legislative committee consists of Lori Nelson, Karma Dixon, Stewart Ralphs and Adam Trupp. Stewart and Lori reported on the non-consolidation of protective orders efforts.

Stewart also indicated that he had been contacted by Tracy Tabet of the Attorney General’s Office regarding an effort to establish a program to assist in transfer of children for parent-time when the parents cannot get along.

The Child Support Guideline Advisory Committee (Helen and Stewart are Committee members) is also working on an update to the guidelines. Stewart indicated that the last guideline was based on 1991 income data.

d. Annual Bar Convention.Kellie Williams indicated she is willing to serve as chair of the annual Bar conference committee. Harry Caston and Commissioner Scott Hadley were also appointed to the committee.

e. Mid-year Bar Convention. Adam Trupp agreed to serve as chair of this committee along with Marci Keck and Stewart Ralphs.

f. Annual Seminar Committee. Howard Lundgren indicated that he would be willing to serve as chair of the Annual Seminar Committee because it was a great experience. Marcie Keck, Commissioner Susan Bradford and Helen Christian were re-appointed.

g. Child and Family Law standing committee. The committee has been looking at the jurisdiction of the juvenile and district court in protective orders on behalf of children. It was decided to make the juvenile court the exclusive jurisdiction for protective orders on behalf of children. Protective orders in the district courts may still list children. The proposal also does away with the automatic transfer of a case to juvenile court and cleans up monitoring.

9. Young Lawyers. The Young Lawyers had arranged for an expert to come in to do a CLE on DNA in paternity matters. They asked the section to help pay for the seminar. Karma indicated that she had a real problem with that because she could arrange a speaker for no cost. Stewart was going to get more specifics and get back to the Executive Committee by e-mail.

10. Third District Court letter. Judge Nehring has apparently received the letter sent from Kellie. Some of the Executive Committee members have had judges comment favorably to the concern. We have not received an official answer from the court, though. It was recommended that we send another letter indicating that we appreciate the fact that he distributed the letter, but we wanted to follow-up to see if there had been a policy determined.

The meeting adjourned.