Article Happy New (Legislative) Year!, 0217 UTBJ, Vol. 30, No. 1. 36
| Author | Senator Todd Weiler, Steve Foxley, Frank Pignanelli, and Douglas Foxley, J. |
January, 2017
Senator Todd Weiler, Steve Foxley, Frank Pignanelli, and Douglas Foxley, J.
January is thought to be named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions. So now is as good of a time as any to "begin" to "transition" into another general session of the Utah Legislature.
Utah has one of the shortest legislative schedules in the country. This year, the forty-five-day session runs from January 23 through March 9- But much of the leg work for this session began nine months ago.
What to Expect in 2017
Since last May, legislators have been meeting monthly in interim committees to vet issues and draft legislation for this year. Many of those bills will be debated on the floor during the first week of the session.
Juvenile Justice will be a hot topic in February. All three branches of state government jointly established a Juvenile Justice Working Group in 2016. The working group met almost weekly during the summer and fall, and it has submitted a lengthy list of finding and policy recommendations. Watch for Representative Lowry Snow to sponsor major legislation designed to make it much more difficult for a court to place a juvenile in detention.
The facts show that taking a child out of the home costs more and often results in increased recidivism. In addition, there will be a push to add a juvenile court component to the indigent defense commission created last year.
The Estate Planning Section of the Bar has worked with members of the Judiciary Committee on a number of uniform laws. As a result, you can expect new legislation regarding access to fiduciary assets, transfers of real property at death, and powers of appointment.
Last year, Representative Mike Schultz's proposal to eliminate non-compete agreements caught most of the business community off guard. Significant compromises were made once the bill reached the state Senate. The bill that eventually passed limits non-competes to a single year and provides for an award of attorney fees against overreaching employers. The legislature is funding a study that is collecting data on the new law. Speaker Greg Hughes has indicated that he wants another bite at the apple. Watch for House leadership to push to further scale back non-competes. Employment attorneys are expected to be on both sides of the issue.
The...
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