FROM THE PRESIDENT

By Garrison "Bud" Klueck

I regret to inform the membership that Rita Drouin had a stroke. For those of you who may not know Rita personally, she is that smiling and pleasant lady who greets us when we file in at the Annual Installation Dinner, Lunch and Learns and some of the section meetings. Rita is the Bar's staff and she has been, for many years, an indispensable part of our organization. She is also the Director of the East San Diego County Lawyer Referral Service and has, in that capacity, channeled a lot of legal business to a lot of our members over the years. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rita. Her doctors are hopeful that she will make a full recovery and regain full ability to function.

While we await Rita's full recovery and return to all her duties, we will try to function as best we can to reach our goals as an organization. Last month in this column, I discussed our four main goals for the year. They were: 1) to relaunch a web site; 2) to send a delegation to the State Bar Convention in Anaheim in September; 3) to bring about a slight change in how the organization refers to itself to have people routinely refer to East County, as well as Foothills, when the organization is discussed; and 4) to have the "Hard-to-Get" MCLE credits seminar become a permanent part of our autumns so that our membership, and all San Diego County lawyers, can count on it every year. I said that I would discuss each of these goals in future columns. This column is the first of that series.

We chose the ORG cyber-suffix because your Bar is a non-profit organization and the ORG designation is intended for such entities. However, the Board has arranged to reserve two domain names, both leading to the same web site. So if a member forgets and types in WWW.FOOTHILLSBAR.COM, you will be directed to same site.

This web site initiation has been "a difficult birth." Those of you   

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FROM THE COURT

by Robert A. Durant

Assistant Executive Officer

Administrative Division

RENT DEPOSITS AND

COMMERCIAL LEASES

The small claims court occasionally hears issues regarding rent deposits for commercial premises. Civil Code Section 1950.7 governs the return of rent deposits involving commercial lease agreements.

The law states that when a portion of a commercial tenant’s deposit is retained due to the tenant’s default in payments, the landlord must to return the remaining deposit amount within two weeks from the date the landlord receives possession of the property.

If, however, deposit amounts are retained for cleaning and repair costs, the landlord and tenant can set an agreed upon date for return of the deposit. The agreed upon date must be no later than 30 days from the date the landlord receives possession of the property.

In the event that the landlord retains the rent deposit in bad faith, Civil Code Section 1950.7 allows for a maximum statutory damage of $200. Additionally, the landlord may be responsible for actual damages sustained by the tenant due to the bad faith retention.

The statutory damage for bad faith retention of a commercial deposit is significantly less than that allowed for residential deposits. Civil Code 1950.5 allows residential tenants to pursue statutory damages in the amount of twice the actual deposit.

HOLIDAY NOTICE

The San Diego Superior Court, East County Division, will be closed on Monday, May 26. 2003 for Memorial Day.

FROM THE

PRESIDENT

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who regularly read these pages know that, from time-to-time throughout the last year or two, we have discussed getting a web site latched but it never actually seemed to get accomplished. Well it has been accomplished now. However, it is clearly a "work in process." We look forward to members' feedback and analysis of what is "your" web site. We will be adding more and different features as the weeks, months and years advance. But for now--we are all so happy that the web site is up and that we are back in cyber space.

Those of you who have been around for a while, and who pay attention to such things, know that we used to have a web site several years ago. The "champion" of that earlier launch of the Bar into cyber space was past President, Tom Buchenau. Tom impresses me as what those in the electronic/high tech industry refer to as an "early adopter"--a person who is among the first in the population to adopt and use new technology and new gadgets. At least Tom was clearly the Foothills Bar's early adopter. Tom was President of the Bar in 1999. During the time in the late 90s, when Tom was most active on the Board (first as an officer and eventually as President), Tom was the first member to strongly advocate the widespread use of e-mail, urge that the Bar do our routine communication through e-mail and to move into cyber space through our own web site.

A web site was latched in the late 90s and we were in cyber space for a couple of years. However, with any new media technology, there is a "gold rush" phenomenon and lots of people are lured into the field most of whom will not survive, will not be around very long but who will escape with some poor sucker's cash before they leave the business. I happen to have a Masters Degree from SDSU in Communications. As part of that program, I did a lot of research about the early days of the motion picture industry. In the aftermath of that new technology coming onto the scene (motion pictures), there was a mad rush of various inventions, different and varied applications of inventions and financial schemes. There appeared to be back in the late 90s a similar "gold rush" in cyber space. We all know or have read of "crash and burn" scenarios concerning cyber business efforts and multitudes of bankruptcy filings in the aftermath of the "dot-bomb" stock market fall. The web mistress, selected by the Board at the time, was one such business. Gradually, our web site became unattended and dated. When the former web mistress was finally tracked down, she was living in Arizona and had gone into a different line of work.

Our new web designer and web host is Responsive Technologies. They have been around since 1989, which is a long time in internet and high tech circles. The technical end of our web site appears to be in good hands and designed by people who will be around for a while. Check out our web design and hosting company at www.ResponsiveTech.com. It appears that your Board has made a good choice and our web site will be functioning into "infinity and beyond."

The web site is a work in progress. It should be better in a month than it is today and better still in a year. Please check out the site and let the Board know what you think. We seek your feedback and suggestions. Let us know what you like about the site and what you would change. Now that we are in cyberspace for good, we will strive to make a good first impression and want the memberships help to achieve this goal.

The Civil Litigation Section will sponsor a training on Wednesday, May 14, 2003, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. location to be announced.

The speaker will Bernadette Probus, in association with the Legal Aid Society, Inc., who will discuss housing law.

The meeting is free to members of the FBA. The cost is $10.00 for non members. Applications for FBA membership will be available at the door.

This activity has been approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE credit by the State Bar of California. The FBA certifies this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing mandatory minimum continuing legal education.

If you have any suggestions for speakers or upcoming meetings, please contact Joe or Sam.

The next meeting of the Criminal Law Section will be on Thursday, May 22, 2003, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Department 6 of the El Cajon Superior Court (second floor). Food is allowed and you are invited to bring your brown bag lunch.

The speaker will be Ingrid Fermin, an Alternative Sentencing Specialist.

The meeting is free to members of the FBA. The cost is $10.00 for non members. Applications for FBA membership will be available at the door.

This activity has been approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE credit by the State Bar of California. The FBA certifies this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing mandatory minimum continuing legal education.

If you have any suggestions for speakers or upcoming meetings, please contact Dan or Andrea.

The next meeting of the Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Section will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2003, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. at the Law Office of Nancy Ewin, 8166 La Mesa Boulevard, La Mesa, CA 91941. The office is in the La Mesa Plaza retail/office complex on the corner of Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard. Bring your lunch (or pick it up prior to the meeting at any one of several sandwich shops in the center), enjoy the meeting and earn one hour of MCLE.

The speaker, Patricia Spencer, Autumn Solutions will present program, "Helping Clients Find a Good Long Term Care Policy."

This activity has been approved for MCLE credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.0 hour Ethics or General Participatory. The FBA certifies this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing mandatory minimum continuing legal education.

These Section meetings are free for all FBA members, and $10.00 for non-members. Applications for FBA membership will be available at the door.

If you have any suggestions for speakers or upcoming meetings, please contact Nancy, Scott or Jocelyn.

The next meeting of the Family Law Section will be on Tuesday, May 13, 2003, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. in Department 6 of the El Cajon Superior Court (second floor). Food is allowed and you are invited to bring your brown bag lunch.

The speaker will be David Kuhfal, Esq. who will discuss community property with right of survivorship.

The meeting is free to members of the FBA. The cost is $10.00 for non members. Applications for FBA membership will be available at the door.

This activity has been approved for 1.0 hour of MCLE credit by the State Bar of California. The FBA certifies this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing mandatory minimum continuing legal education.

If you have any suggestions for speakers or upcoming meetings, please contact Ed, Judi or Dana.

SECTIONS:

CIVIL LITIGATION

Joseph Fox 466-9091

Sam Parise (858) 674-6660

CRIMINAL LAW

Daniel Cohen 697-0333

Andrea Schneider 337-1384

ESTATE PLANNING

Scott Cole 460-2080

Nancy Ewin 698-1788

Joselina Medrano 562-9999

FAMILY LAW

Judith Klein 698-1882

Bud Klueck 448-6500

Edward Torrence 698-6059

COMMITTEES:

ANNUAL DINNER

Virginia Johnson 441-4801

Wells Lyman 589-9984

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Joselina Medrano 562-9999

COURT LIAISON

Bud Klueck 448-6500

GOLF TOURNAMENT

Dan Bacal 588-2064

LAW DAY

Jerry Carmody 667-9600

MCLE

Joselina Medrano 562-9999

MEMBERSHIP

Edward Torrence 698-6059

PUBLICATION

Catherine Tancredi 579-7876

SPECIAL EVENTS

Wells Lyman 589-9984

WEBSITE

SMALL CLAIMS COURT

Please be prepared to take the

bench at 8:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.

May, 2003

1        AM     Clare Maudsley

          PM     Jon McKinley

2        AM     James Mietzel

          PM     Ron Oberndorfer

6        AM     Blaine Phipps

          PM     Frank Puglia

7        AM     Charles Scott Jr.

          PM     Joseph Sciarretta

8        AM     Peter Singer

          PM     Conrad Walker

9        AM     Dan Bacal

          PM     Kenyon Young

13      AM     Thomas Buchenau

          PM     Tom Castonguay

14      AM     Timothy Cohelan

          PM     Ed Castro

15      AM     David Demergian

          PM     David Egan

16      AM     Joseph Fox

          PM     Miranda Franks

20      AM     Elliot Kanter

          PM     Larry Kincaid

21      AM     Leroy Knutson

          PM     Garrison Klueck

22      AM     Wells Lyman

          PM     Clare Maudsley

23      AM     Jon McKinley

          PM     Thomas Marshall

27      AM     James Mietzel

          PM     Ron Oberndorfer

28      AM     Blaine Phipps

          PM     Frank Puglia

29      AM     Charles Scott, Jr.

          PM     Joseph Sciarretta

30      AM     Conrad Walker

          PM     Kenyon Young

Foothills Bar Association

P.O. Box 1077

El Cajon, CA 92022