ISBA Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs Melinda Bentley reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week she covers three of the 13 rights in the House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 29 (Crime Victim’s Rights) and the House Bill 5434 (Debtors’ Rights Act of 2012). More information on each bill is available below the video.

House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 29: Outlines 13 specific rights for crime victims. Three of them are highlighted here:
1.    The right to refuse to disclose to the defendant information that is privileged or confidential by law, as determined by the court with jurisdiction over the matter;
2.    The right to be heard at any post-arraignment court proceedings where a right of the victim is at issue, and any court proceeding involving a post-arraignment release decision, plea, or sentencing matter;
3.    The right to have access to information in a report related to any aspect of the defendant’s sentence when that information is available to the defendant.

Debtors’ Rights Act of 2012: The goal is to prevent debtors from being sent to jail for failure to appear in court in response to a previously entered order to pay a debt
It amends the Code of Civil Procedure in the following ways:
1.    The service of a citation to discover assets must contain a citation notice and an Income and Assets Form that is statutorily created by this bill.  It must be served by a process server via personal or abode service.
2.    It provides that no order or judgment shall be entered in favor of the judgment creditor unless there is a certification showing that proper notice was given, the judgment debtor is given an opportunity to assert exemptions, and that the payments are from non-exempt sources.  If the court determines that the judgment debtor does not possess any non-exempt income or assets, then the citation is dismissed.