There is one vacancy on the court, created when Judge Stephen S. Trott took senior status Dec. 31, 2004.

There is one vacancy on the court.

Orange Superior Court Judge James E. Rogan, a former congressman and Commerce Department official, was nominated Nov. 15 to succeed Judge Nora Manella, who resigned to become a justice of this district's Court of Appeal May 22.

There are no vacancies.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled the court's nine vacancies on Aug. 20.
Deputy District Attorney Terry Bork was named to succeed Judge Lois Anderson Smaltz, who retired Aug. 1.

Commissioner Melissa Widdifield was named to succeed Judge Bernard Kamins, who retired May 15; Administrative Law Judge Georgina Torres Rizk to succeed Jon Mayeda, who retired May 30; Assistant U.S. Attorney Elaine Lu to replace Judge James Bascue, who retired June 1; Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp partner Elia Weinbach as the successor to Judge Alice Altoon, who retired June 21; Elizabeth Feffer of Jones & Mayer to replace Judge Richard Lyman, who retired July 9; and Lesley C. Green of Bannan, Green, Frank & Terzian to succeed Judge Richard Neidorf, who also retired July 9.

There are two new positions created by SB 56, which authorized 50 new judgeships statewide as of June 1, and the governor named Deputy District Attorney Gregory Dohi and Deputy Public Defender Marguerite Downing to fill those.

Among those whose names have gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are former Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Vaughn, now a managing director of the litigation and consulting firm FTI Consulting, Inc.; criminal defense specialist Steven Cron of Santa Monica; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorneys Richard Kraft and Edward J. Perez; state Deputy Attorneys General Steven D. Matthews, E. Eugene Varanini IV, Victoria Wilson, Paul Roadarmel Jr., Robert S. Henry and Kenneth Byrne, Administrative Law Judge Robert Helfand, Deputy District Attorneys Jeffrey Gootman, Karla Kerlin, Ricardo Ocampo, and Laura Laesecke; Commissioners Tamila Ipema, Victor Greenberg, Amy Pellman, Maren Nelson, Dennis Mulcahy, Harvey Silberman, Ronald Rose, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Mary Lou Katz Byrne, and Loren DiFrank; Referee Steven Berman; U.S. District Court attorney Amy L. Lew; Irvine attorney Raymond Earl Brown; Deputy Federal Public Defender Angel Navarro; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jerome J. Haig; Los Angeles attorneys John L. Carlton, Adrienne Krikorian, Mark A. Borenstein, Eulanda Matthews and Lawrence P. Brennan Jr.; Century City attorney Howard S. Fredman, and Westlake Village attorney Michael Nebenzahl.

An election will be held among the court's judges to choose Widdifield's successor as commissioner.
Commissioners Martin L. Goestch, James Copelan, and Gerald Richardson are on long-term medical leave.

The following bills of interest to the legal community were introduced in August:

•AB 159 , by Assemblyman David Jones, D-Sacramento, which, as amended, would create an unspecified number of new superior court judgeships and an unspecified number of Court of Appeal judgeships, subject to appropriations, and convert 162 commissioner and referee positions into judgeships over time, with no more than 16 such positions to be converted in any one year. The bill, which passed the Assembly June 6 by a vote of 78-1, was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file Aug. 20.

•AB 160, by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, which, as amended, would create a Sentencing Commission which would adopt sentencing guidelines, to take effect in July 2009 unless rejected by the Legislature. The bill, which passed the Assembly June 6 by a vote of 43-36, was sent to the Senate Appro­priations Committee suspense file Aug. 20.

•AB 171, by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, which, as amended, would create an expanded Assump­tion Program for Loans for Law in the Public Interest to replace the Public Interest Attorney Loan Repayment Program, under which the state makes 3,000 grants each year to assist lawyers with repayment of their student loans. The current program is limited to attorneys who work for a prosecutor's office, child support agency, or public defender's office; the expanded program would add those working for a legal services agency or a county counsel's office. The bill, which passed the Assembly in April by a vote of 44-30, was amended in the Senate Aug. 20.

•AB 403, by Assemblyman Van Tran, R-Costa Mesa, which, as amended, would require the California Law Revision Commission to study whether, and when, the attorney-client privilege should survive the death of the holder and report by 2009. The bill passed the Senate Aug. 27 by a vote of 38-0 and was sent to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.

•AB 475, by Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga, which would give the arresting agency the right to notice and to present evidence at the hearing on a motion to destroy an arrest record. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 10 by a vote of 73-1, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of late yesterday.

•AB 500, by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, which, as amended, would allow attorneys to appear by telephone or teleconference at certain types of hearings at which witnesses are not expected to testify, unless the court specifically requires that counsel appear, and would require the Judicial Council to adopt rules to implement that provision. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 3 by a vote of 73-0, was amended in the Senate Aug. 27.

•AB 553, by Assemblyman Edward Hernandez, D-West Covina, which would give the Public Employment Relations Board exclusive authority to seek injunctive relief in the event of a job action by state employees. The bill, which passed the Assembly June 5 by a vote of 46-32, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of yesterday.

•AB 860, by Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-Chula Vista, which, as amended, would eliminate the right to trial by jury on prior-conviction allegations in some criminal cases. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 24 by a vote of 41-26, was set to be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on July 10 but the hearing was cancelled at the request of the author.

•AB 863, by Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, which would make certain raises received by Los Angeles Superior Court employees on Oct. 1, 2005 retroactive to Aug. 1 of that year. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 23 by a vote of 42-31, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of yesterday.

•AB 1043, by Assemblywoman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, which would make void and unenforceable as against public policy any provision in an employment contract that requires an employee, as a condition of obtaining or continuing employment, to use a forum other than California, or to agree to a choice of law other than California law, in any dispute with an employer regarding employment-related issues that arise in California. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 17 by a vote of 44-32, was amended in the Senate Aug. 29 to specify that the legislation does not prohibit an employee from agreeing to a choice of law or forum selection clause as long that is not a condition of employment and is supported by independent consideration.

•AB 1090, by Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Costa Mesa, which, as amended, would require that candidates, including judicial candidates, seeking to use a ballot designation support that designation by filling out a worksheet prescribed by the secretary of state. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 29 by a vote of 77-0, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of yesterday.

•AB 1248, by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, which would make various changes with regard to civil procedure, court fees, and funding. An amended version of the bill passed the Assembly June 4 by a vote of 77-1, was amended in the Senate Aug. 1 and placed on the Appropriations Committee suspense file Aug. 20.

•AB 1539, by Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank, which, as amended, would extend procedures for humanitarian release, currently limited to certain prisoners with terminal illnesses, to those who are permanently medically incapacitated and whose release is deemed not to threaten public safety. The bill, which passed the Assembly June 7 by a vote of 41-35 and passed the Senate Public Safety Committee July 3 by a vote of 3-1, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of yesterday.

•AB 1557, by Assemblyman Michael Feuer D-West Hollywood, which would limit peremptory challenges to six per side in all misdemeanor cases. Current law allows 10 peremptory challenges per side in trials for offenses punishable by more than 90 days in jail. The bill was awaiting third reading in the Assembly as of yesterday.

•AB 1723, by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, a State Bar proposal that would establish specific requirements for attorneys establishing accounts under the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts program and for banks offering such accounts. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 14 by a vote of 65-7, was awaiting third reading in the Senate as of yesterday.

•SB 11, by Sen. Carol Migden, D-San Francisco, which would eliminate the limitation of domestic partnerships to same-sex couples and couples in which one of the parties is over the age of 62 years and receiving Social Security benefits. The bill, which passed the Senate June 4 by a vote of 23-15, was awaiting action in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as of yesterday.

•SB 39 , by Migden, which would broaden public access to case files of children who are dependent or are wards of the juvenile court when those children have died as a result of abuse and neglect. The bill, which passed the Senate May 17 by a vote of 38-0, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee Aug. 23 by a vote of 16-0.

•SB 110, by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, which, as amended, would establish a 20-member sentencing commission chaired by the chief justice, with power to determine the sentences for infractions and crimes, subject to rejection by a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature. The bill, which passed the Senate June 6 by a vote of 24-15 and was approved by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety July 3, was placed on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file Aug. 22.

•SB 145, by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, which would extend the deadline for transfer of local court facilities from the counties to the Judicial Council to Dec. 31 of next year. The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in March, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday by unanimous vote.

•SB 241, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Encino, which, as amended, would allow a court, where the parents of a ward or minor conservatee, or the estate, lack the ability to pay the fees of appointed counsel, to order payment of all or part of those fees by the county or to appoint the public defender to furnish such representation. The bill, which passed the Senate June 4 by a vote of 27-10, was awaiting action in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as of yesterday.

•SB 353, by Kuehl, which would allow a court, when issuing a domestic violence restraining order, to determine the right to custody of, and restrain violence against, household pets. The bill, which passed the Senate May 10 by a vote of 31-7 and passed the Assembly July 12 by a vote of 77-1, was sent to the governor after the Senate concurred in Assembly amendments Aug. 27 by a vote of 33-4.

•SB 396, by Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, which would require the establishment of a committee to study civil court filing fees. The bill, which passed the Senate in May by a vote of 22-16, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday on a party-line vote.

•SB 539, by Sen. Robert Margett, R-Glendora, which would amend the way penalties are calculated when counties are delinquent in their payments to the State Trial Court Trust Fund. The bill, which passed the Senate unanimously in April, unanimously passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee yesterday.

•SB 559, by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, which would protect property from full value reassessment due to the death of the surviving owner's domestic partner prior to 2006. Such protection already exists where the partner died on or after Jan. 1, 2006. The bill, which passed the Senate June 4 by a vote of 24-13 and passed the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee July 5 by a vote of 6-3, was awaiting action in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as of yesterday.

•SB 639, by Sen. Tom Harman, R-Costa Mesa, which would amend existing provisions with respect to enforcement of foreign money judgments. The bill, which passed the Senate May 17 by a vote of 38-0, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee July 3 by a vote of 10-0 and the full Assembly July 12 by a vote of 80-0, was sent to the governor after the Senate concurred in Assembly amendments Aug. 27 by a vote of 38-0.

•SB 686, by Corbett, which, as amended, would authorize the State Bar to levy dues for 2008 at the current rate, and would authorize an additional fee of $10 per member per year from 2008 through 2010 to upgrade the State Bar's computers, while deleting the authorization for a $10 annual fee for construction or leasing of the State Bar headquarters. The bill, which passed the Senate May 24 by a vote of 31-4 and was amended in the Assembly June 13 to delete a provision that would have granted a rebate of building fund collections for 2007, and passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee July 16 by a vote of 9-0, was awaiting third reading in the Assembly as of yesterday.