MEMBER UPDATES

Posted: February 8, 2008

Reduction of peremptory challenges/voir dire- John Keefe, Jr. (past president) serves on the Supreme Court subcommittee and has been fighting to keep our current number of peremptory challenges in place while adding consistency to how judges are applying the new voir dire. TANJ will continue to monitor the AOC's position will oppose any efforts to reduce peremptory challenges or limit the scope of voir dire.

Amicus Issues - Tom Robertson is chairman of our Amicus Committee. Our panel of distinguished retired judges (Keefe, Hamlin, Corodemus, Clyne and Vogelson) are currently reviewing several amicus issues. If you have amicus issues that wish for us to review, please let us know.

Public Positions - Chairman Mike Marrone is looking for feedback on several important issues including Voir-Dire, mandatory CLE and whether we should revive the "oral summary of an expert's opinion" rule which was deleted from the court rules several years ago. Please let us know where you stand on these issues by responding to this email.

Legislative - The governor signed into law our bill that corrected an error created by the 1995 Uniform Probate Code amendments that could have been read to limit the distribution of wrongful death proceeds after a recovery to only the surviving spouse. The amendment to the Wrongful Death Act will now make certain that distribution of those proceeds will also be available for the children of the decedent. This resolves uncertainty for both plaintiffs and defendants in finalizing wrongful death cases. TANJ testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the bill which was drafted by longtime member Tim Barnes. Jim Batsides chairs this committee and is receptive to reviewing any legislative issues brought to his attention.

Education and Membership: Jack Simons has just put together a great voir-dire seminar for the winter trip in the Bahamas on February 21-24. Suzanne Marasco is coordinating our membership drive and looking into how we can better serve our members. If you have any ideas for seminars or for member benefits, let us know.