Full Report - the Missouri Bar

Administration of Justice
The legislative endeavors of The Missouri Bar are
restricted to legislation that relates to the administration
of justice, the integrity of the judiciary, the dignity of the
legal profession or – in the case of bar-drafted legislation –
improvement of the law. Within that context, the state bar’s
efforts in the legislative arena continue to have a lasting
impact on all Missourians.
The Missouri Bar closely monitors all matters that fall
within the above-mentioned scope, and at the same time
focuses on proposals drafted by its various substantive law
committees.
2012 Legislative Session
Throughout last year’s legislative session, The Missouri
Bar fought to prevent passage of SJR 51, which
would have interjected politics into the selection process
for Missouri’s appellate judges by giving the governor
the opportunity to appoint a majority of the members of
the commission that ultimately selects three nominees for
appellate court vacancies. Despite a long and tenacious
effort to thwart this measure, proponents of this change to
Missouri’s pioneering Nonpartisan Court Plan prevailed
within the legislature. The proposal ultimately appeared
on the November general election ballot as Amendment
3, but the voters of Missouri overwhelmingly rejected it –
thereby retaining the merit selection system as adopted by
Missouri citizens more than 70 years ago.
While the battle over SJR 51 took an extensive amount
of time and effort, the remainder of The Missouri Bar’s
legislative agenda was not ignored. In fact, the following
bar-drafted proposals were introduced:
• HB 1527, sponsored by Rep. Ken Elmer, and
SB 683 (sponsored by Sen. Jason Crowell) were
identical measures that included amendments
to the bankruptcy exemption statutes drafted by
the state bar’s Commercial Law Committee. The
amendments clarified provisions relating to minor
vehicles and mobile homes, corrected an erroneous
statutory cross reference, and raised the maximum
age of a dependent from 18 to 21, consistent with
the reality of community, economic and social
conditions. HB 1527 passed as a stand-alone bill,
while identical provisions were also included in
SB 628, an omnibus judicial bill. Both bills were
signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon and became
effective on August 28, 2012.
• HB 1165 (Rep. John Diehl) and SB 636 (Sen.
Joe Keaveny) included technical provisions to
a law relating to qualified spousal trusts. These
changes were drafted by the bar’s Probate & Trust
Law Committee. The identical language of both
bills was included in SB 628, which was passed
by both houses. In addition, SB 636 passed as a
stand-alone bill, which was also signed into law by
the governor and became effective on August 28,
2012.
• HB 1166 (Rep. John Diehl) and SB 761 (Sen.
Joe Keaveny) created new laws regarding trust
protectors. The provisions of these bills detailed
the rights and responsibilities of a trust protector.
Though neither passed as a stand-alone bill,
identical provisions were passed as part of SB 628,
signed into law by the governor and effective on
August 28, 2012.
• A four-year effort by a special committee appointed
to revise the state’s criminal code produced
a draft proposal of more than 1,000 pages
that was approved by the Board of Governors and
introduced as HB 1897 (Rep. Stanley Cox) and SB
871 (Sen. Jolie Justus). Both bills were referred
to committee and ultimately deferred for further
study by a Joint Interim Committee on the Missouri
Criminal Code. After six weeks of hearings,
the committee issued a report detailing testimony
that was taken and broadly endorsing the need for
a comprehensive code revision. Both bills are expected
to be reintroduced during the 2013 legislative
session.
In addition, although not bar-drafted, The Missouri Bar
supported an important provision passed during the 2012
session allowing for an extension of the Court Automation
Fund from 2013 to 2018 and the Court Automation Committee
from 2015 to 2020.
2013 Legislative Session
In addition to the criminal code proposal outlined above,
the only proposal approved to date by the Board of Governors
for submission in the 2013 session comes from the
Probate & Trust Law Committee. This proposal would
amend Section 513.430.1 to clarify that Individual Retirement
Accounts and Health Savings Accounts are exempt
from creditor claims.
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