SAVE OUR COURTS.

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View NCGA Bill Details2019-2020 Session
House Bill 1207 (Public) Filed Tuesday, May 26, 2020
AN ACT TO SAVE OUR COURTS BY APPROPRIATING FUNDS TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE TO THE NORTH CAROLINA COURT SYSTEM, BY TEMPORARILY REMOVING THE LIMITS ON ACTIVE EMERGENCY JUDGES, AND BY PROVIDING GREATER DISCRETION TO JUDICIAL OFFICIALS SETTING CONDITIONS OF PRETRIAL RELEASE.
Intro. by John, Brewer, Morey.

Status: Ref to the Com on Judiciary, if favorable, Appropriations, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action) (May 27 2020)
H 1207

Bill Summaries:

  • Summary date: May 26 2020 - View Summary

    Directs the State Controller to transfer $20 million from the Coronavirus Relief Reserve to the Coronavirus Relief Fund (both established in SL 2020-4). Appropriates the transferred funds on a nonrecurring basis to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for the 2020-21 fiscal year as follows: $2.5 million for technological expenditures; $10 million for supply expenditures, including personal protective equipment and temporary rental facilities; and $7.5 million for personnel expenditures, including temporary staffing, overtime pay for courthouse staff, additional emergency judges, and existing temporary staff. Makes the general provisions set out in SL 2020-4 applicable to the appropriated funds. 

    Eliminates the limit for the active lists for emergency superior, special superior, and district court judges. Requires judges to be added to or removed from either list based on the needs of the court system as determined by the NC Chief Justice. Sunsets the provision after 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2021.

    Amends GS 15A-534 regarding conditions for pretrial release. No longer requires a judicial official to require a defendant to execute a secured appearance bond when imposing house arrest with electronic monitoring as a condition of pretrial release. Additionally, for conditions imposed for a defendant who has failed to appear on at least one occasion to answer the charge(s) to which the conditions apply, requires the judicial official to impose restrictions on the travel, associations, conduct, or place of abode of the defendant, if no conditions were recommended in the order for arrest, rather than mandating that the judicial official require the execution of a secured appearance bond of at least $1,000.