Legislative committees will hear three family law related bills this next week:

First, the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on #HB2741, which is the 2012 Clean-up Bill for the Kansas Family Law Code. This hearing will be held on March-13 @ 3:30pm The provisions of this bill are proposed to be retroactive so that there is no “skip” in any provisions corrected. The bill does not contain any substantive provisions, but merely “corrects” some references in the Family Law Recodification bill from last year and inserts some sections that were inadvertently left out of last years bill.http://bit.ly/xdhwqq

The House Judiciary Committee will also hold a hearing on #SB292, which proposes to automatically revoke an ex-spouse’s inheritance rights (other than for ERISA covered plans and benefits) upon divorce on March 14 @ 3:30pm This is a KBA supported bill and attempts to correct identified problems with beneficiary provisions in non-ERISA benefits that have been identified for many years. http://bit.ly/yCTl2B

Also, the House Judiciary Committee will hearing on that same day and time  #SB297, which proposes to remove “gifts” from the spousal exception from marital property (March 14 @ 3:30pm). This bill is proposed not to change the law of property division in divorces, but to make sure that in bankruptcy actions spouses may claim gifts they made as exempt property. http://bit.ly/A77BfS

These next couple of weeks are very important at the legislature. All bills must have passed the “opposite house from their origin” no later than March 30, 2012 (other than bills that are “exempt.”)

If you have any questions about these or any other bills or have proposals for changes in Kansas family law, please let me know.

Also, remember that the KBA Family Law Section’s Spring CLE Institute is being held in Lawrence on March 30. Sign up if you haven’t already done so at http://www.ksbar.org