Bill Text: HI SB1265 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Owner's Agreement; Attorney's Fees; Unclaimed Property
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Passed) 2013-07-09 - Became law without the Governor's signature, Act 286, 7/9/2013, (Gov. Msg. No. 1392). [SB1265 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2013-SB1265-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 539
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 1265
S.D. 1
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Seventh State Legislature
Regular Session of 2013
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1265 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONTRACTS,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to exempt an owner's agreement with an attorney to file a claim as to identified property or contest the administrator's denial of a claim from the application of the entire section 523A-25, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Collection Law Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association.
Your Committees find that Act 229, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, limited compensation for the recovery of property presumed abandoned to ten percent of the total value of the property. Your Committees further find that the majority of property held by the Department of Budget and Finance is valued at less than $5,000. If any difficulties are encountered when attempting to release property from the Department of Budget and Finance, the cost to hire an attorney will increase beyond the ten percent limit in all but the largest of cases. The ten percent limit on compensation for recovery therefore creates a barrier for members of the public who wish to hire an attorney to assist with the recovery of unclaimed funds or property.
Your Committees understand that there are valid reasons for establishing a maximum ten percent fee structure for professional unclaimed property locators. Your Committees also understand the potential barriers to the public that result from extending the ten percent limit on compensation to attorneys. However, your Committees believe that it is more appropriate to increase the limit on compensation for attorneys to twenty-five percent of the total value of the property, rather than completely removing the limit on compensation. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to ensure that members of the public are still able to retain attorneys to handle the claims process, while also ensuring that attorneys' fees for this process remain at reasonable levels.
Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Specifying that an owner's agreement with an attorney to file a claim or contest the denial of a claim and that provides for compensation shall not exceed twenty-five percent of the total value of the property; and
(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1265, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1265, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor,
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____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair |
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____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair |
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