April 2003

COLORADO BAR ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE FAMILY LAW SECTION
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING
April 18, 2003

Attendees:
Kathryn Beck Joan McWilliams
Chris Hardaway Tim Mehrtens
David Johnson Lesleigh Monahan
Steve Lass Russel Murray
Ron Litvak Bonnie Schriner
Bob Malman Kim Willoughby
Steve McBride Richard Zuber
Excused:
Beth Henson
Mark Leonard
Fran Fontana
Dick Rotole
Cathy Lohman
Angie Arkin

Visitors:

Rich Harris
Melissa McClerkin
John L. Eckelberry

I. Call to Order at 1:45 p.m. by Lesleigh Monahan.

II. Minutes of the last Executive Council meeting, 2/21/03, were approved.

III. Officer Reports

A. Chair (Lesleigh Monahan)

1. Brown Bag Lunches with Judges: Completed Lunches and Reports: The Adams County luncheon went well, and the minutes were attached to the Executive Council minutes and are on the web site. Judge Crabtree asked if we would help do a survey of how the Adams County judiciary is doing. He thought that would be helpful to their bench. Kathryn Beck volunteered to explore this.

Arapahoe Brown Bag luncheon has been scheduled for April 30th.

2. Special Masters Program/ Arapahoe County: Request is made for experienced members of the Family Law Section to sign up for this program. It will be extremely helpful to the Arapahoe County bench and people trying to get divorced in that county.

3. State Judicial request for volunteers to review CLE materials: State Judicial has requested volunteers to write blurbs about CLE materials concerning family law. People who are interested in doing this, please contact Lesleigh Monahan.

B. Chair Elect (Steve Lass)

Grants: Colorado CASA requested $1,500 for us to pay for 60 volunteers to attend their training conference. They are expecting about 200 volunteers to attend the conference. A grant of $1,500 was unanimously passed to Colorado CASA.

C. Secretary (Bonnie Schriner)

Telephone link-ups for luncheon participation in CLE will be discussed at our next meeting. Bonnie will get with Melissa to find out the exact cost and participation in the last several luncheons. Dave Johnson said that the Colorado Springs participants enjoyed being able to attend by telephone.

D. Treasurer (Fran Fontana)

The Treasurer’s report is attached to these Minutes.

The Council earlier voted to have a Judges’ dinner in November

rather than having a Judges’ luncheon. Fran will need helpers to get this accomplished.

The Section will sign a contract with Sheraton Four Points Inn to hold the luncheons at their facility for the upcoming year. The date for the proposed November dinner needs to be left open and decided upon soon.

IV. Commission on Families in the Colorado Courts

New Rule 16.3 (Dave Johnson): Dave said the criticisms were balanced. It was equally divided about undisclosed income and the ability of the Court to deal with that even years later. Dave expects his committee will produce a second draft within the next two months. It was emphasized that people need to speak now about problems they have with the proposed Rules, as it seems likely some Rule will be adopted.

V. Committee Reports

A. Book Sales. Kathryn Beck requested 50 more books to be printed. That amount was authorized.

B. General. A copy of the committee assignments was attached to the Agenda of this meeting. We will need new volunteers to chair and work on various committees, as Council will have some turn over and new members will be on board.

C. Newsletter. Beth Henson cannot do the Newsletter next year. Helen has agreed to stay on it. (Thanks, Helen!) We need a volunteer to help Helen produce the Newsletter.

D. Nominating (Steve Lass)

The slate has been decided. We need bios from the slated people by April 20th.

E. Young Lawyers. John Eckelberry agreed to work on this project and will hopefully get help since Kim Willoughby will not be on the Council next year.

F. Mentoring. Tim Mehrtens said that he may take this on, as Bob Cooper will no longer be chairing that committee.

G. Family Law Institute (Richard Zuber and Lesleigh Monahan)

Richard said the schedule was out for the Family Law Institute, and hopes many people will attend. Brochures for the Institute were passed out at the today’s luncheon.

H. Judicial Education Committee. Lesleigh will help handle this committee next year.

I. Amicus Committee. (Ron Litvak, Mary Jane Cox)

Ron reported that he and Mary Jane did not believe we would be able to get a consensus on the AMD case in the Supreme Court, so FLS will not be getting involved as amicus in that appeal. The issues involved, inter alia, how to deal with a one-time influx of income for child support calculation.

J. Legislative Committee. Steve Lass said that the committee is getting organized for next year’s work.

Three bills have been passed and a fourth bill remains undecided, though there is a hearing on that Bill next Monday. The Bills passed include: Increase in Filing Fees; the Child Support Bill (72 pages) passed with certain controversial parts being deleted; the issue of CSE collecting interest on child support is still available; the Bill that changed the Restraining Orders to "Orders of Protection" passed. The Bill which remains undecided was formerly known as the "Innocent Spouse Bill." Many changes have occurred to that Bill, with significant parts being deleted, and others being added. Steve will let us know the outcome.

The meeting adjourned at 3:15.

This was Lesleigh Monahan’s last Council meeting as Chair. Lesleigh, you go girl!

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Schriner