H.B. 173 - Omnibus Criminal Law Bill Summary

• Extends the grace period for paying fines, penalties, or court costs from 20 days to 40 days before incurring a $50 failure-to-pay fee, effective December 1, 2015.

• Requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to track and report annually on criminal cases remanded from superior court to district court, including number of remanded cases and cost remissions by district and judge.

• Removes the requirement that magistrates be licensed attorneys to appoint counsel and accept waivers of counsel, while prohibiting magistrate authority over potentially capital offenses and allowing magistrates to accept guilty pleas for intoxicated and disruptive in public charges.

• Changes bond doubling requirement for defendants on pretrial release from mandatory to permissive, allowing judges discretion when determining conditions for new charges, effective October 1, 2015.

• Updates terminology from "mentally retarded" to "intellectual disability" and conforms standards to federal court decisions by allowing intelligence quotient scores above 70 as evidence when accounting for measurement error and clinical standards for adaptive functioning.

• Authorizes electronic or facsimile transmission of expunction orders to state agencies and allows courts to order preservation of biological evidence samples instead of physical evidence when size or impracticality warrants.

• Permits certification of business records by custodians via affidavit rather than requiring in-person testimony, effective October 1, 2015.