Monday, November 10, 2014
Page 3
Legislature Inadvertently Creates Additional Court Holiday
By a MetNews Staff Writer
There will be a new court holiday next year—Native American Day—unless legislation is passed to change that.
Julie A. Goren, author and publisher of a civil litigation handbook, spotted the legislation, enacted this year as AB 1973, which creates the court holiday. She said in an e-mail Friday to members of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Small Firms Section:
“Although I’m told it was accidental and should at some point be rectified, effective January 1, 2015, the fourth Friday of September will be a court holiday. This affects deadline calculations.”
Goren provided a link to a posting by her on LinkedIn in which she explains:
“Just how Native American Day affects California civil litigation procedure requires a two-pronged analysis. [Government Code] Section 6700 establishes it as a state holiday, but not all state holidays are ‘judicial holidays’ or ‘non-court days.’ ”
September 9, Admissions Day, and Good Friday, which is observed from noon to 3 p.m., are not state holidays, but courts are open. This, she says, is because of Code of Civil Procedure §135.
“It provides that every full day listed as a holiday in…§6700 (eliminating Good Friday), except Admissions Day, are court holidays,” Goren’s posting says. “Because AB 1973 did not amend C.C.P. §135 to except it, Native American Day is a non-court day.”
In an addendum, she notes:
“I spoke to [Supervising Attorney] Pat O’Donnell at the Judicial Council. Turns out that the drafter of the bill did NOT realize that the bill created a judicial holiday, although it indeed has. They are now trying to figure out how to undo this (obviously an amendment to C.C.P. §135 is required), but whether and when this will happen is anyone’s guess.”
The bill was authored by Assemblyman Roger Hernández, D-West Covina.
Copyright 2014, Metropolitan News Company