October 11, 2007, Introduced by Reps. Byrnes, Stakoe, Polidori, Miller, Meadows, Mayes, Pearce, Spade, Nitz, Booher, Steil, Nofs, Meekhof, Gaffney and David Law and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
A bill to amend 1961 PA 236, entitled
"Revised judicature act of 1961,"
(MCL 600.101 to 600.9947) by adding section 2978.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 2978. (1) The judges of each circuit shall determine and
publish a fair and equitable process for the creation and
maintenance of the list of eligible referees in the county for
purposes of section 2977.
(2) To be eligible to serve as a referee for purposes of
section 2977, unless the parties stipulate to a person to serve as
referee in a case, an individual must meet the following minimum
qualifications:
(a) He or she shall have completed a training program approved
by the state court administrator providing the generally accepted
components of trial skills.
(b) He or she shall be admitted to the practice of law in this
state, and be a member of the state bar of Michigan in good
standing, and shall have actively practiced in the area of planning
and zoning law for a minimum of 10 years, with at least 25% of his
or her practice devoted to planning and zoning law.
(3) The parties to a particular case may specify other
qualifications in addition to those specified in subsection (2) for
an appointed referee by written stipulation, and those additional
qualifications shall be honored to the extent an individual with
those additional qualifications is available.
(4) The state court administrator shall develop and approve
standards of conduct for referees designed to promote honesty,
integrity, and impartiality in providing court-related dispute
resolution services. These standards shall be made a part of all
training and educational requirements for court-related programs,
shall be provided to all referees involved in court-related
programs, and shall be available to the public.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect
unless Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5292(request no.
00307'07 **) of the 94th Legislature is enacted into law.