AN ACT CONCERNING THE COURTS OF PROBATE.

This bill authorizes a probate court to appoint someone it finds to have a sufficient interest in an estate as a temporary administrator to obtain financial or medical information on a deceased person to investigate whether the estate or an heir, devisee, legatee, or beneficiary has a cause of action.

The bill delays by one month the deadline for (1) filing certain financial information with the probate court administrator about a probate judge who died while holding, or within 24 months after holding, office and (2) paying a percentage of probate judge's net income to the state treasurer for deposit into the Probate Court Administration Fund.

The bill specifies that a judge's minimum compensation cannot be calculated by using the average compensation for the three year-period from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1998 unless there was no break in service after the three-year period.

The bill requires that those who appeal from a probate court decision mail, instead of serve, a copy of the complaint to the probate court that made the decision.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009, except that the provision dealing with appeals to the Superior Court becomes effective upon passage.

The bill authorizes any one who has sufficient interest in the estate to apply to probate court for appointment as a temporary administrator for the limited purpose of obtaining financial or medical information concerning a deceased person. This includes obtaining medical information and records necessary to investigate (1) a potential cause of action the estate may have or (2) a potential cause of action of an heir, devisee, legatee, or beneficiary of the deceased person.

The bill allows a court to grant an application that it finds would be in the interests of the estate or of an heir, devisee, legatee, or beneficiary of the deceased person.

The court must limit the temporary administrator's authority to disclose information he or she obtains, and may issue an appropriate order regarding disclosure.

Any order appointing a temporary administrator, and any certificate of the appointment of a fiduciary the court clerk issues, must (1) indicate the duration of the appointment, and (2) specify that the temporary administrator has no authority over the deceased person's assets.

The bill changes the deadline for filing certain financial information with the probate court administrator in connection with the death of a probate judge while in office or within 24 months after holding office. The bill requires the judge's personal representative to file a statement showing the actual gross receipts and itemized costs of operating the decedent's office for the preceding calendar year and the decedent's net income from that office for such calendar year by April 1^st instead of March 1^st of the year following the judge's death. It also requires the representative to file a statement showing the net income to the decedent's estate from the probate court office for the preceding calendar year by April first instead of March first of the second year following the judge's death.

The law requires a probate court judge to pay to the state treasurer a percentage of his or her annual net income, based on a statutory formula, to be credited to the Probate Court Administration Fund. The bill requires that if the amount already paid was less than the amount due, the judge must submit his or her payment by April 1^st instead of March 1^st of the next calendar year.

The law establishes a formula for determining a probate judge's compensation and specifies that it may not be less than a certain level as determined by one of two different methods. Under current law, the annual minimum compensation may not be less than (1) the product resulting from multiplying $ 15 by the court's annual weighted-workload, as defined in regulations issued by the probate court administrator or (2) the judge's average compensation for the three-year period from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1998. The bill specifies that the average compensation for the three-year period may not be used to calculate a judge's minimum compensation unless there was no break in service after the three-year period.

HB 6027, reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee alters the way probate court judges are compensated and makes other significant changes to the probate court system.

HB 6387, reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee, changes the way probate court judges are compensated, replaces the 117 probate court districts with 36, and makes other significant changes to the probate court system.

Yea

Nay

(04/01/2009)