Judiciary omnibus: family support.

(1) Existing law obligates a parent to support his or her child. Existing law establishes the Department of Child Support Services within the California Health and Human Services Agency, which administers all services and performs all functions necessary to establish, collect, and distribute child support. Existing law requires, if child support payments are directly deposited to an account of the recipient's choice, that the payments only be deposited to a qualifying account, as defined, and prohibits a person or entity that issues a prepaid card or maintains or manages a prepaid card account from accepting or facilitating the direct deposit of child support payments to a prepaid card account that does not meet the requirements of a qualifying account. Existing law prohibits the Department of Child Support Services from being held liable for authorizing a direct deposit of child support payments into a prepaid card account designated by the recipient that does not meet the requirements of a qualifying account. This bill would specify that the Department of Child Support Services has no obligation to determine whether an account at the financial institution of the recipient's choice is a qualifying account. (2) Existing law requires each party to a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or legal separation of the parties to serve on the other party a preliminary declaration of disclosure of assets, as specified, either concurrently with the petition for dissolution, or within 60 days of filing the petition. This bill would clarify that the petitioner is required to serve the preliminary declaration of disclosure either concurrently with the petition for dissolution or legal separation or within 60 days of filing the petition. (3) Existing law requires each county to maintain a local child support agency that has the responsibility, among other things, to promptly and effectively establish, modify, and enforce child support obligations. Existing law authorizes attorneys employed within the local child support agency to direct, control, and prosecute civil actions and proceedings in the name of the county in support of the child support activities of the Department of Child Support Services and the local child support agency. This bill, effective July 1, 2016, would authorize a local child support agency to electronically file pleadings signed by an agent of the local child support agency under penalty of perjury. The bill would require the Judicial Council to develop rules to implement this provision. (4) Existing law specifies the number of judges of the superior court for each county, and allocates additional judgeships to the various counties in accordance with uniform standards for factually determining additional need in each county, as approved by the Judicial Council, and other specified criteria. Existing law provides for the conversion of 146 subordinate judicial officer positions in eligible superior courts upon the occurrence of specified conditions, including that the proposed action is ratified by the Legislature, except that no more than 16 positions may be converted to judgeships in any fiscal year. Notwithstanding this provision, existing law authorizes up to 10 additional subordinate judicial officer positions to be converted to judgeships in any fiscal year if the conversions will result in a judge being assigned to a family law or juvenile law assignment previously presided over by a subordinate judicial officer and the proposed action is ratified by the Legislature. This bill would ratify the authority of the Judicial Council to convert 10 subordinate judicial officer positions to judgeships in the 2015–16 fiscal year when the conversion will result in a judge being assigned to a family law or juvenile law assignment previously presided over by a subordinate judicial officer. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2104 of the Family Code proposed by SB 340, which would become operative only if SB 340 and this bill are enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2016, and this bill is chaptered last.