Legal News

New Year, New Laws: A Look at a Few Taking Effect

By Dan Slater

Yesterday, as revelers recovered from New Year’s Eve festivities, a bevy of new state laws took effect. Here are several that caught our eye:

Stalking stalkers: In Illinois, judges can now require satellite tracking of stalkers who repeatedly violate orders of protection, though most jurisdictions have not yet bought the equipment needed to carry out the new law. One source tells the Chicago Trib that the financial impact on the state will be larger than the accumulation of $200 fines that results from the underlying violations.

Don’t text and drive: In California, the highway patrol, according to the LAT, plans no grace period before enforcing a new law prohibiting the use of text-messaging devices — including cellphones, BlackBerrys and laptop computers — while driving. (That includes being stopped at a light.) Fines are $20 for first offenses and $50 for subsequent violations.

Messed up in Mass: It’s no longer a crime in Massachusetts to have one ounce or less of pot. Those who are caught with an ounce or less will get a ticket similar to a building code citation, notes the Globe. They can appeal the civil infraction in court within 21 days or pay a $100 fine set in the law. Juvenile violators would have to pay the fine and attend a drug abuse counseling course, or have the fine increased to $1,000.

Breath-alyze, before you drive: Under laws that took effect yesterday in Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington state, drivers convicted of a first-time DUI must install breath-alcohol ignition interlocks on their cars if they want to keep driving while their licenses are suspended. Under Illinois’s law, according to this report in the State, drivers must pay the full costs of the devices — about $80 — which prevent them from starting their engines if they fail the test. If caught skirting the device by having someone else blow into it, the driver could go to jail for 3 years.

Confronting the hog-waste lagoon: A new North Carolina law will set stricter rules on how hog waste is collected and disposed of. On farms, waste storage containers must now have alarms that will alert farmers when the container is almost at capacity. According to WECT Wilmington, the law “was made in an effort to ban hog waste lagoons that can overflow.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 02, 2009 (boomark / email).