2012 LAWS THAT MAY AFFECT YOUR CHANCERY PRACTICE
May 9, 2012 § Leave a comment
Here is the final list of 2011-2012 legislative session bills that passed both houses. Some of these are awaiting the governor’s signature.
HB 159. Revises confidentiality in domestic abuse cases. Although this statute is among the criminal procedure laws, it offers some guidance for the chancery/county court practitioner who handles domestic violence cases about who is entitled to confidentiality in such cases, what information should be treated as confidential, and some means to accomplish it. Signed by the Governor. Effective July 1, 2012.
HB 484. Judicial pay raise. Discussed here before. Signed by the governor.
HB 780. Revises jurisdiction in domestic violence cases. This bill makes several significant changes. Venue is in the county where the alleged abuse occurred, and if the case is filed in the wrong county the judge “shall transfer” the action to the appropriate venue. A chancellor presented with a petition for emergency relief may refuse to consider it, but not for the sole reason that it should have been filed in justice or county court instead. The obvious problem with requests for emergency relief in chancery is that they can be used to “poison the well,” so to speak, or to prejudice the chancellor for or against a party in a pending divorce case. This bill makes many other changes to the law that you need to be aware of if you do any domestic violence practice. It has been signed into law by the governor, and takes effect July 1, 2012.
HB 1157. Conforms DHS child support enforcement to federal requirements. A few minor tweaks to the law, passed in conference, not yet signed by the governor.
HB 1268. Revises various statutes pertaining to adoption. If you do any adoptions at all, you must get familiar with this bill. It amends MCA 93-17-3 to add the requirement that a home study be done in all adoptions, and to provide that no out-of-state residents may adopt unless they have first complied with the Interstate Compact for Placement of Children, and adds some post-placement reporting requirements. It requires that the Indian Child Welfare Act be complied with as a prerequisite to adoption in appropriate cases. It amends MCA 93-17-6 to require DNA testing when the father appears or contests, and, most importantly, clarifies the publication requirements for an unknown father. It adds an interesting qualifier to the provision that the parental rights of a father who has not “met his full responsibilities of parenthood” be terminated by tacking on the phrase “and is unwilling to do so,” changing, in my opinion, the emphasis from past non-performance to past non-performance coupled with future unwillingness. The bill passed conference and is awaiting the governor’s signature.
HB 1588. Appropriations for the judicial branch.
HB 2256. Prohibits sex offender access to MYCIDS, beaches and campgrounds. This bill adds more proscriptions against sex offender activity where they may come into contact with children, prohibiting them from beaches and camp grounds where children gather. They are also prohibited from accessing the youth court MYCIDS data base. The bill also permits youth court referral to drug courts. Signed by the governor. Effective in part on passage, and in part on July 1, 2012.
HB 2367. Clarifies the definition of abuse and neglect of vulnerable adults. Amends MCA 43-47-5 and other statutes to clarify the definition of abuse and neglect as it relates to vulnerable adults. Signed by the governor. Effective July 1, 2012.
Click on this link to view a list, with links, of all the legislation affecting courts that passed during this session.
CARROLLTON
May 5, 2012 § Leave a comment
Carrollton, population 400, County Seat of Carroll County, population 10,500, a hillcountry county for the most part, falling off into the Delta along its western edge. The Carroll County Picture Show in Bobbie Gentry’s Ode to Billy Joe was here. The movie version of Faulkner’s The Reivers, starring Paul Newman, was filmed in Carrolton. The extinct hamlet of Avalon, in northwest Carroll County, was the birthplace of bluesman Mississippi John Hurt.
The courthouse in Carrollton was built around 1870 and features breezeway halls that cross perpendicularly. The halls are cool in the summer and cold in winter. A dog was enjoying the cool of the concrete floor on the warm afternoon when we dropped in. Upstairs is the old court room, its electronic trial gadgets adding a discordant punctuation to the plain, stately setting.
The day we visited, jail trustees had just finished moving all of the Justice Court records out of the old courthouse to the newer, storefront version in Vaiden, in the southern part of the county. Vaiden is the largest town in mostly rural Carroll County, and is the seat of the County’s other judicial district. Carroll is one of around 10 Mississippi Counties that have 2 judicial districts, making them for court purposes like two separate, distinct counties. It’s an archaic concept, but unlikely to be undone any time soon, since Carrollton and Vaiden are unfriendly rivals.
Across from the courthouse to the north is the white frame building that was the 19th-century law office of James Zachariah George, a formidable figure in Mississippi history. You can see it in street scene photo below. J.Z. George was a native of Georgia who moved to Mississippi. He fought with Jefferson Davis in the Mexican-American War and later became a lawyer. He was a reporter for the Mississippi Supreme Court, and signer of Mississippi’s Ordinance of Secession. He was an officer in the Civil War, and was taken prisoner twice. After the war, he served as Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, and later as US Senator. His statue is Mississippi’s offering in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol.
Carrolton is a sleepy town that seems to cling tightly to its past, as the photos suggest. There are old homes and old churches, the flag of a defeated cause, and a patina of faded glory.
LITERARY HYBRIDS
April 5, 2012 § Leave a comment
Back in the 90’s the Washington Post invited its readers to create new literature by combining the works of two different authors, and to provide a suitable description of the merged book.
The prizewinners:
Machiavelli’s Little Prince. Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic children’s tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed.
Green Eggs and Hamlet. Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Now get her to a nunnery.
Where’s Walden? Alas, the challenge of locating Henry David Thoreau in each richly-detailed drawing loses its appeal when it quickly becomes clear that he is always in the woods.
Catch-22 in the Rye. Holden learns that if you’re insane, you’ll probably flunk out of prep school, but if you’re flunking out of prep school, you’re probably not insane.
2001: A Space Iliad. The Hal 9000 computer wages an insane 10-year war against the Greeks after falling victim to the Y2K bug.
Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi. Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling’s theory that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
The Maltese Faulkner. Is the black bird a tortured symbol of Sam’s struggles with race and family? Does it signify his decay of soul along with the soul of the Old South? Is it merely a crow, mocking his attempts to understand? Or is it worth a cool mil?
Jane Eyre Jordan. Plucky English orphan girl survives hardships to lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship.
Looking for Mr. Godot. A young woman waits for Mr. Right to enter her life. She has a loooong wait.
The Scarlet Pimpernel Letter. An 18th-century English nobleman leads a double life, freeing comely young adulteresses from the prisons of post-Revolution France.
Lorna Dune. An English farmer, Paul Atreides, falls for the daughter of a notorious rival clan, the Harkonnens, and pursues a career as a giant worm jockey in order to impress her.
The Remains of the Day of the Jackal. A formal English butler puts his loyalty to his employer above all else, until he is persuaded to join a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.
The Invisible Man of La Mancha. Don Quixote discovers a mysterious elixir, which renders him invisible. He proceeds to go on a mad rampage of corruption and terror, attacking innocent people in the streets and all the while singing “To Fight the Invisible Man!” until he is finally stopped by a windmill.
Of Three Blind Mice and Men. Burgess Meredith has his limbs hacked off by a psychopathic farmer’s wife. Did you ever see such a sight in your life?
Planet of the Grapes of Wrath. Astronaut lands on mysterious planet only to discover that it is his very own home planet of Earth which has been taken over by the Joads, a race of dirt-poor corn farmers who miraculously developed rudimentary technology and regained the ability to speak after exposure to nuclear radiation.
The Exorstentialist. Camus psychological thriller about a priest who casts out a demon by convincing it that there’s really no purpose to what it’s doing.
Paradise Lost in Space. Satan, Moloch, and Belial are sentenced to spend eternity in a flying saucer with a goofy robot, an evil scientist, and two annoying children.
TIPS FOR USING THIS BLOG
March 22, 2012 § Leave a comment
With around 400 substantive posts on this blog to date, and another 160 not-so-substantive, you can’t be blamed if perhaps you find it a challenge to dig up what you’re looking for. So here are some tips to help you find that elusive post you’re seeking, as well as to enjoy the blog in general.
Rooting Around …
- SEARCH. See that box on the right-hand panel with the word “Search” and a magnifying glass? Move your cursor over there right now and type in Unknown Heirs. Go ahead. I’ll wait. See? You are taken to a page with a selection of posts where that term appears. Try different terms, like child custody, publication, Albright, whatever. Just click on the title of the post you want to read, and Voila! Hint … If you’re searching for a rule, like MRCP 56, it’s best to use a search term for the substance of the rule rather than its number. “MRCP 56” might return every use of MRCP and the number 56, as in 56 So.3d 788.
- CATEGORIES (right panel). Under the Search Box is another box under the title “Search Older Posts by Category.” The box says, “Select Category.” When you click it, a drop-down menu will appear. Select a category and you will get a selection of all the posts in that particular category. It’s a good tool to start big — for instance, “Estates” — and refine your search with other tools.
- CATEGORY (left panel). So you’re reading a post about notice to creditors in an estate and wonder what other posts there might be on this topic. Click on a category and you’ll get a selection of the others in the same category.
- TAGS (left panel). Tags are like categories, only a little more refined. Click on a tag and you will find other posts that I aassigned the same tag. Tags are not neceessarily consistent, though, so this isn’t a sure-fire search tool.
- WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN READING ABOUT. Over there on the right is this feature. It registers the most frequently viewed older posts in this 24-hour period. It’s like the “trending” function on some web sites. You might see something there that piques your interest.
- OLDER POSTS. Scroll down the page and you’ll see this legend with a list of months and years. Click on one and you’ll get a selection for all the posts for that particular month.
- PAGE JUMP. Go to the very bottom of the page — either scroll down or hit your “End” button — and you’ll find several boxes with numbers. “1” is this page. Click on another number to go to earlier pages.
12th District Info …
- HOME. At the top of the page are four buttons. Home is today’s page. When you’re through reading those posts you searched, click HOME to return here.
- ABOUT. This button is there for folks who wander here unawares and want to know exactly what all this nonsense is “about.”
- TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS. If you’re wondering how to get a case scheduled for hearing in the 12th District, or what a pre-adoption conference is and why it’s necessary, or how we handle irreconcilable differences divorces, or how to set an ex parte or Rule 81 matter, this is the tab you need to click.
- MY BACK PAGES. (Apologies to Bob Dylan) This tab gets you info about me, including contact, bio, disclaimers and more.
Checklists, Notebooks and Fair Use …
- I encourage you to copy posts you find useful. One way is to copy and paste. To print a post, click on the title and you will be taken to a page with only that post on it, which you can then print. If you try to print from the main, or “Home,” page, you will print out ten posts.
- The checklists particularly lend themselves to use this way. Print out the Albright checklist, for example, and have it in your file for your next custody trial. I actually keep a binder on the bench with all of the checklists. If you’re handling an estate, print out the checklist for closing an estate and track it through your handling of the matter to a conclusion so that you’re sure to do everything required in the proper order.
- Lawyers have told me they are printing out posts and making notebooks tabbed with subject matter according to how they use them. Great. I think this is a marvelous idea. And feel free to make copies of whetever you need to include in your trial notebook. If you have an upcoming trial with a thorny evidentiary issue and you find a post on point, copy it and have it handy. Caveat … Don’t cite me as authority — I’m merely a lowly trial judge — cite the case or other authority referred to in the post.
- You are welcome to copy anything here for your own private use in the practice and study of law, but not for commercial or for-profit use. If you use want to use anything from this site in a publication, please ask permission first and give credit.
Links and Comments …
- On the right panel are links to some blogs and web sites that you might find helpful. They are grouped under headings. “Courts and the Bar“ has links to the appellate courts, the very useful Second District web page, and the MSB page. “District 12 Law Firms“ has links to all of the web pages that I know of for law firms physically located in Lauderdale and Clarke Counties. If you want your link here, set up a web page and give me the link, and it will appear. “Lawyer Blogs“ includes links to blogs by lawyers around the state. These are informational or of general interest; not included are lawyer blogs that are marketing tools or self-promoting. A post highlighting some of these is here. Lawyer blogs that go un-updated for too long disappear from my blogroll. “Mississippi in General“ has links to blogs with Mississippi news or of interest to Mississippians. “Resources“ is a set of links to blogs that you might find helpful in your practice of law. “Schools“ links to the two Mississippi law school web sites. “Worth a Look“ is a selection of links that I find entertaining, or interesting, or simply quirky. Be sure to check out my favorite, Holiness Snake Handlers, which opens with the incomparably memorable line “Take my opinions with a grain assault.” These change from time to time, according to my whim and caprice.
- Comments appear under posts. All comments are moderated, so yours may not appear immediately after you comment. Comments are encouraged, particularly ones that raise questions that bear a closer look, as well as comments that prompt discussion. Filtered out are abusive comments and comments by laypeople castigating the courts and the legal profession; there are plenty of other forums where that sort of thing is enjoyed and encouraged.
BELL SAVE THE DATE
March 15, 2012 § Leave a comment
Professor Deborah Bell’s Mississippi Family Law Seminars are
- JACKSON, July 20, 2012
- OXFORD, July 27, 2012
- GULF COAST, August 3, 2012.
As I’ve said here before, if you practice family law you owe it to yourself and your clients to take in her annual update on Mississippi cases and laws. She also always includes a presentation on topical developments in the field.
And her BELL ON MISSISSIPPI FAMILY LAW should be in your library.
RIP JOHN CAPERS
March 9, 2012 § Leave a comment
Rest in peace, Meridian attorney John W. Capers, who died March 8, 2012.
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 