March 2005

MINUTES

FAMILY LAW LUNCHEON

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING

  MARCH 18, 2005

The Executive Council Meeting was called to order by the Chair, Bonnie Schriner.  In attendance were:  Jordan Fox, Marie Moses,  Michael DiManna, Frank McGuane, Gretchen Aultman, Brenda Storey, Helen Shreves, Martin Brown, Beth Henson, Stan Lipkin, Fran Fontana, Robert Smith, Terry Bernuth,  Rob Hinds, Bob Malman, Steve Lass, Richard Zuber, Dick Rotole, and Dave Johnson.  Attending by telephone were: Deb Anderson and Mike Luchetta.  Guests attending were: Patricia Donahue, Ellen Squires, Sherene Stenger and John Eckelberry.  Excused: Jaqueline St. Joan, Kathryn Beck, and Megan Combs.  Absent:  Steve Epstein, Katie Hayes and Joan McWilliams.

The minutes of the February 17, 2005 meeting were adopted. 

OFFICERS’ REPORTS:

Bonnie Schriner reported that Steve Lass and Steve McBride will chair our ad hoc Ethics Committee specifically to work in conjunction with the Standing Committee on Family Law Issues. 

 The Treasurer’s report was provided to the Executive Council be email prior to the meeting.  Kathryn Beck was excused from attending.  Bonnie Schriner reported on behalf of Kathryn that several new luncheon sites have been investigated and unfortunately none offer lunch at a price which is the price range of the FLS.  

 There was discussion concerning the Judges’ Luncheon for the coming year.  The Council has previously decided to hold a different event than a luncheon since many judges from other districts are not able to attend a luncheon in downtown Denver in the middle of the day.  The consensus of the Council was that a reception with the judges at the end of the business day would be scheduled in November.  A CLE will be done in conjunction with the reception and the judges will be asked to determine the topic of the CLE.  Helen Shreves suggested that we give as much advance notice of the date as possible so judges can clear their calendars.  It was also suggested that the notice be provided to the clerk of each judge since the clerk controls the calendar.  Fran and Kathryn will speak to some of the judges and check on date conflicts (other judge/law events) and availability, and report back.

 OLD BUSINESS:

Colorado Lawyer: Marie Moses passed out a sign up sheet for articles for the Colorado Lawyer.  Once again she encouraged each new member of the Council to sign up for an article.

Newsletter: Ellen Squires reported that the January Newsletter went out late due to a holdup at the printer.  However, this is the last Newsletter that will be going out by regular mail.  All future Newsletters will be sent by e-mail. Ellen solicited articles from Council members.  Topics which will be discussed in upcoming Newsletters will include an article on special advocates, book reviews, some humorous articles on unusual property fights, gossip in the legal community, wit and wisdom from Martin Brown, etc. 

Bench Book: Beth Henson reported for Barbara Quade that the Bench Book is progressing.  Authors have been assigned topics and have done initial drafts of each chapter.  Re-writes are due on April 15, 2005. 

Expert Directory: Rob Hinds reports that the expert directory is done and will be bound and ready for distribution by April 2005.  Members of the Executive Council will receive an e-mail of the expert directory and all are encouraged to check the directory for any names of persons who have moved out of the state or who are deceased. 

Standing Committee on Family Law Issues: Dave Johnson reported that the next meeting is April 22, 2005. 

Family Law Institute: Steve Lass reported that Dana Cogan and Kevin Albert have the mental health track agenda almost completed.  Bob Smith is covering the mediator track.  Fran Fontana reported that there is no single theme for the Institute at this time.  However, hot topics will be repeated and will include judges.  Friday’s agenda will be hot topics and a plenary session; Saturday will be sessions for the various tracks; and Sunday will include the case law update, a plenary session and more hot topics.  Steve Lass is to follow up on how the Family Law Section’s financial contribution to CLE is going to be used. 

Nominating Committee: Steve Lass reported that today is the deadline for submitting nomination petitions.  Current members were reminded that they must submit a petition with five signatures.  The nominating committee will now prepare the ballot and is scheduled to have a phone conference on Thursday, March 24.  Steve reported that Marie Moses has agreed to run for Treasurer.  At this time, it appears she will be unopposed.  Melissa Nicolleti reported that we have 20 nomination petitions so far and that there is a limit of 24 names on the ballot. 

NEW BUSINESS: 

Legislative Report: Dick Rotole reported that there were hearings on several bills during the last week. 

House Bill 1157 (limitations on custody evaluations) has passed out of committee and is going to the House floor.

House Bill 1171 (appointments in domestic relations cases/parent coordinator/decisionaker/arbiter) also passed out of committee and was sent to the House floor.  There was a lot of discussion during the hearing concerning immunity for parent coordinators.  Accountability is the main concern and the bill now has an immunity provision for parent coordinators.  The immunity provision was added during the hearing.  Dick reported that the issue of immunity is still under discussion.  Consistent with Council’s prior vote, it was noted that the Section will not support a bill which contains immunity for parent coordinators.

House Bill 1172 concerning the name change of special advocates to “court and family investigators” has been tabled, pending the outcome of the vote on House Bill 1171.  Dick reported that this bill will most likely pass once House Bill 1171 is passed. 

House Bill 1200 concerning DA’s offices handling support enforcement has passed out of committee to the House floor.

House Bill 1038 concerning the automatic termination of child support at 19 is scheduled for a hearing during the week of March 21.  There is still a need to include language in the bill for setting child support when younger non-emancipating children are also covered by the child support order.  Steve Lass and Dick Rotole will follow up with the sponsor concerning adding this language.

Senate Bill 181 regarding the genetic testing advisement is still pending and there are discussions concerning when and how the advisement should be accomplished, i.e., in the summons, in the petition, in court or all three. 

Senate Bill 030 concerning day care services for courts died due to the projected fiscal note.

Senate Bill 4 concerning the proposed duty of the special advocate to report child abuse is pending and will likely pass. 

Marie Moses announced that there is a movement in the state to have the 50/50 parenting time presented to the voters on a state-wide referendum ballot.  The movement is designed to direct the legislature to pass a bill creating the presumption for 50/50 parenting time. 

Amicus Committee: There was no report.  Brenda Storey reported that the PERA case is still in the trial court and motions are pending. 

Scholarship Policy Committee: John Eckleberry provided Council with a draft of a written policy for scholarships.   The guidelines call for awarding scholarships to the Family Law Institute for new or young lawyers and possibly one non-lawyer.  Three scholarships for $575 each would be awarded.  The recommendation is that one scholarship be from the Metro area, one be from outside the Metro area and a third one could be a non-lawyer.  There was general discussion concerning the selection criteria and the economic cap for attorneys applying for these scholarships.  There was also discussion that the terms “young” or reference to an age limit should also be removed since the scholarship is designed to assist new practitioners who are not making much money.  Martin Brown made a motion that the scholarship committee recommendations be adopted.  He accepted a friendly amendment that the scholarships be limited to lawyers with under five years of practice, making less than $40,000 a year, and who are paying for the FLI themselves.  The motion was seconded and unanimously passed.  The consensus of the Executive Council also was that one scholarship annually of the three to be awarded could be awarded to a non-lawyer. 

Magistrate Award: Martin Brown reported that the committee had discussed the matter and were going to recommend against having the Family Law Section recognize a magistrate.  The concerns of the committee were how the Family Law Section could choose a magistrate in a state-wide category, how to avoid the award becoming a beauty contest, and how to select a magistrate who is outside the Denver/Metro area.  The consensus of the Executive Council was that the Family Law Section should not establish an award recognizing a magistrate.  Frank McGuane reported that the AAML gives such an award to a judge each year and that this year will probably be awarded to a magistrate for the first time. 

Membership Committee: Brenda Storey reported that the survey has gone out to the membership and that so far there have been 35 responses.  She encouraged all members of the Executive Council to respond.  Responses are due by March 30, but this deadline will probably be extended.

Brenda also reported that we have 70 new members since September 2004 and that the Family Law Section now has a total of 909 members.

Brenda reported that the “phone in” service for the monthly luncheons is becoming quite popular.  There were 43 persons by phone for the January CLE, 18 for the February CLE, and 15 for the March CLE.  The May luncheon (legislative update) will be a free phone in as well. 

Grants Committee: Fran Fontana reported that she will be revising the proposed grants policy and will e-mail it to the Executive Council. 

Fran also reported that there was a grant request sent to the committee from the CU Law School. (Fran noted that at this time she is a committee of one.)  The grant request is for a juvenile law clinic and is requesting $30,000 in funding.  Fran suggested that a grant this size was beyond the treasury, but that some response should be made to the request.  Brenda Storey, Beth Henson and Dave Littman agreed to serve on the Grants Committee with Fran.  An executive summary of the grant proposal will be sent to the Executive Council before the April meeting.  The committee will make a recommendation on this request at the next meeting . 

Family and Work Place Violence Issues: Melissa Nicolleti reported that the recent shootings in Atlanta and the murder of an attorney in Cortez have brought the issue of family and work place violence to the forefront.  She reminded us that family law attorneys are a high risk group for such violence.  Melissa reported that Dr. John Nicolleti and Catherine Shoen provide an excellent presentation on this issue.  Melissa suggested that perhaps a presentation at a monthly luncheon on this issue would be helpful to our members.  Fran reported that Dr. Nicolleti did a presentation on this topic at the Family Law Institute last year and is going to repeat that presentation at the Family Law Institute this year. 

Terry Bernuth expressed a concern that the FLS needs to avoid the appearance of promoting a single provider or support the business of someone. The consensus of the Executive Council was that a presentation by a panel on this topic would be helpful and that Dr. Nicolleti would be asked to participate in the panel.  

Bonnie Schriner suggested that we put information concerning this topic on the website. 

Dick Rotole, Gretchen Aultman, and Bonnie Schriner will resurrect the committee on family and workplace violence and work on putting together the luncheon presentation for next year.  Bonnie reported that the Red Book dealing with this topic is currently out of print but that she would inquire as to having it reprinted and made available again. 

Attorney Mediator Dialogue: David Littman reported that the Attorney Mediator Dialogue will take place on April 15, 2005 at the Sheraton Four Points.  The monthly Family Law Section luncheon will be held in conjunction with this event and Judge Anderson will speak at the luncheon on the issue of removal.  The entire CLE will carry seven credits. 

David also reported that he has advised the other groups involved in the dialogue of the FLS desire to meet and discuss a memorandum of understanding concerning the protocol for future attorney-mediator dialogues.  Any discussions will occur after the upcoming event on April 15. 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:10 p.m.

                                                            Respectfully submitted,

                                                            David M. Johnson, Secretary