HB 374 Summary

• Establishes veterans treatment courts in circuit courts to provide judicial supervision, drug testing, and substance abuse/mental health treatment for military veterans and current military personnel.

• Creates a circuit realignment plan process where the judicial conference must submit proposed changes to judicial circuit boundaries every 20 years (beginning in 2020) based on weighted workload models and other factors.

• Modifies associate circuit judge positions by allowing additional judges in circuits with populations of 100,000 or more if weighted workload models show need for four or more full-time positions for three consecutive years.

• Updates court reporter fees for appeal transcripts to $3.50 per legal page (or $2.60 for indigent criminal defendants) and eliminates various statutory provisions for specific judicial circuits that are now governed by the realignment process.

• Allows family courts in specified circuits and permits conditional release for sexually violent offenders with electronic monitoring provisions and law enforcement access to GPS tracking data.