Humboldt County Superior Court Effective April 5, 2010, there are calendar changes for Courtroom 4. Please see attached News Release (pp. 6-7).

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1 Legal Procedures Report June 2010 Carrie Hughes, CCLS **************************************************************************************************** June 16 Courts Closed, Furlough July 5 Courts Closed, Holiday August LSI Quarterly Conference, Modesto, CA **************************************************************************************************** Alameda County Superior Court Free edelivery for Case Management Statements. Effective June 1, 2010, the court is offering a new, free service. You can your civil Case Management Statement to the court at EDelivery@alameda.courts.ca.gov. The CM Statement can be in Word or PDF format and up to 5 MB in size. Your statement will be reviewed and if acceptable for filing, will be available for viewing on the DomainWeb by the end of the next business day. If you do not see it, please the edelivery staff. California Secretary of State s Office There are increased wait times for business document and notary processing. Please see attached News Release (p. 5). Federal Judiciary - Effective May 15, 2010, the Federal Judiciary launched its enhanced website ( Check it out! Humboldt County Superior Court Effective April 5, 2010, there are calendar changes for Courtroom 4. Please see attached News Release (pp. 6-7). Los Angeles County Superior Court A 5 x 4 pilot program is underway by LASC to determine whether there is an alternative method of operating the civil courtrooms at Stanley Mosk Courthouse with fewer staff personnel. Please see attached News Release (pp. 8-9). Orange County Superior Court Effective June 1, 2010, OCSC will offer a new efiling and eservice for civil cases that is easy to use and uploads documents to the court s case management system. Please see attached News Release (p. 10) DMV Unveils New iphone Application iphone users will now have DMV information and services at their fingertips with a new DMV iphone application called DMV Now. The application will allow iphone users the ability to find a local office with the average 1

2 wait time and provide turn by turn directions, take sample written driving tests, access a large library of DMV driver education videos, and access other important DMV alerts. Marin County Superior Court Announces online register of actions for immediate release. Please see attached News Release (p. 11). New Statewide Report Proposes Major Reforms for Family Law Court Judicial Council accepts Elkins Task Force Report s 117 recommendations to increase fair and efficient justice for California family law litigants. Please see attached News Release (pp ). Juror Use of Electronic Communication Technologies The CACM Committee developed instructions to address the increasing incidence of juror use of devices such as cellular phones or computers to conduct research or communicate with others about cases which has resulted in mistrials, exclusion of jurors, and imposition of fines. Please see attached News Release (pp ). **************************************************************************************************** Wife Wins $9 Million from Husband s Alleged Mistress A woman in North Carolina sued her husband s alleged mistress for alienation of affections and the jury returned a verdict for $9 million against the mistress. The award was based on $5 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages. Cynthia Shackelford, age 60, hired an investigator and discovered the affair. She decided to sue the alleged mistress, Anne Lundquist, age 49, for breaking up her marriage of 33 years. Shackelford claimed that Lundquist pursued her husband, while knowing he was a married man. Lundquist claims the marriage was broken before the affair began. Alienation of affections is a legal claim that has been considered outdated and alienation of affections statutes have been repealed in the majority of states. North Carolina is one of only 7 states with alienation of affections laws still in force, and sees roughly 200 such cases brought a year. Such claims may be brought by either a wife or husband against the other s paramour. Shackelford says that she brought the case to raise awareness about the harm caused by adultery. Lundquist did not attend the trial or hire an attorney, but says she plans to appeal the verdict. Study Finds Attractive People Convicted Less Often A new study by Cornell University has found unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones. People who are unattractive were also found to receive harsher sentences an average of 22 months longer in prison. The study was composed of 169 Cornell psychology undergraduates, who were classified as either rational or emotional decision-makers, based on survey results. They were then given case studies of defendants, including a photograph and profile, 2

3 were read jury instructions and listened to closing arguments in the case. There wasn t a significant discrepancy in conviction rates between attractive and unattractive defendants in serious cases with strong evidence. However, in more minor cases, with ambiguous evidence, jurors were more biased toward the good-looking. It is possible the findings could impact how attorneys select juries? **************************************************************************************************** Facts About Men, Women, and Divorce A law once on the books in Arkansas said a man can legally beat his wife, but no more than once a month. In Rome, 449 AD, a man could divorce his wife if he could prove that she was going out to dine with other men without his knowledge or permission. In Rome, 449 AD, a man could divorce his wife if he could that she was leaving home at night without his permission, that she was going to the circus, the theater or the amphitheater after he forbade it. In Utah, a husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife in his presence. A law in Delaware says that a marriage can be annulled if you can prove that you married the guy as a jest or a dare. In New Jersey, Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina there is a middle course between separation and divorce, a divorce from bed and board. Such a legal decree allows a spouse to continue on his or her spouse's health insurance plan. Neither spouse may remarry and many rights of inheritance are forfeited. The divorce from bed and board is a solution for Catholics who do not believe in absolute divorce, or divorce from the bonds of marriage. (The let no man put asunder clause in wedding vows.) A divorce from bed and board is also available in Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, and Rhode Island. It wasn t until 1992 that New York made rules protecting clients from divorce lawyers. Two things that were deemed impermissible: having sex with a client, and billing a client for the time spent discussing billing. Under Texas law, it is illegal to have more than six dildos in a home. In Arizona, the limit is two. Marriage was not considered a religious sacrament in the Western world until some time between the 8th to 10th centuries. The Catholic Church in the Council of Trent (in the third session in 1563) made marriage one of the seven sacraments; from then on a priest had to preside over the marriage or the church would not consider it legal. 3

4 Maryland was the first place in the New World to make divorce legal. The year was Divorce was illegal in South Carolina until Canada did not legalize divorce until Before that, a Canadian marriage could be dissolved only by an act of parliament. The Catholic Church made divorce illegal in Rome in 700 AD. Divorce was not made legal again in Italy until Brazil did not legalize divorce until Ireland did not legalize divorce until Divorce is illegal in Malta and the Philippines. Vermont used to have a law on the books that said that women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth. In Pennsylvania, if your husband deserts you for six months, then returns in good faith (and not because he realized how much he was going to have to fork over in alimony) and you take him in, he has not deserted you. But if you refuse to see him, or speak to him, under Pennsylvania law the man can sue his wife for desertion. In Montana it is a felony for a wife to open her husband's mail. (Presumably the next step would be to read it.) An Internet poll in Saudi Arabia asked married men and women if they had any problems with sex. Some 42 percent of men said they did not; 93 percent of the women said they did. Don t fall for promises of a quick Mexican divorce... the residency laws changed 30 years ago, and most advertised promises for a quick divorce are scams. Quick, uncontested divorces are available in Haiti; they require a weekend stay. Quick, uncontested divorces are possible in the Dominican Republic, after one party stays one night, but the divorces are recognized only in New York, Connecticut, Tennessee and a few other states. A quick, uncontested divorce is possible in the United States Territory of Guam with a seven-day stay, and is recognized in all 50 states. But do you know how far away Guam is? 4

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