This legislation would increase the number of juvenile court judgeships in Douglas County from four to five. Additionally, the Legislature adopted an amendment granting the Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court the authority to appoint a judge of a separate juvenile court to hear juvenile matters in a county court. The Legislature will vote on the final passage of L.B. 23 later in the session since L.B. 23 requires an appropriation and appropriations bills are considered after the Legislature has adopted the state budget. This legislation provides that when any costs in misdemeanor, traffic, or juvenile cases in county court are found by a county judge to be uncollectible for any reason, including the dismissal of the case, such costs shall be deemed waived unless the judge, in his or her discretion, enters an order assessing such portion of the costs as by law would be paid over by the court to the State Treasurer.
Current law requires the judge to enter an order waiving such costs.
The NSBA supports L.B. 83 as amended to protect judges retirement and legal services funding. The Speaker of the Legislature Doug Kristensen included L.B. 848 as one of his 25 Speaker Priority Bills. This legislation provides that each applicant for the Bar who has resided, either temporarily or permanently, outside of the State of Nebraska for a period of more than six consecutive months at any time after having obtained 18 years of age shall submit to the Bar Commission with the bar application a complete set of his or her eligible fingerprints along with written permission authorizing the set of fingerprints to be forwarded to the Identification Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, through the Nebraska State Patrol. This legislation was introduced at the request of the Bar Commission because the Commission is oftentimes unable to obtain information concerning Bar applicants from law enforcement agencies in states or localities outside the State of Nebraska. The NSBA supports this legislation.