House Sponsors: MAUTINO-WINTERS-SMITH,MICHAEL-OSMOND-DART, DAVIS,STEVE, REITZ, BOLAND, FOWLER, HOFFMAN, SLONE, O'BRIEN, FORBY, TENHOUSE, MITCHELL,JERRY, HOEFT AND LANG. Senate Sponsors: WALSH,L-NOLAND Short description: AGRICULTR-PRODUCER PROTECT ACT Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Creates the Agriculture Producer Protection Act. Requires agriculture production contracts to contain certain disclosures, meet readability guidelines, and include a cover sheet that provides specified warnings, risk disclosures, producer rights, and an index of the major contract provisions. Provides that the Director of Agriculture may review an agriculture production contract for compliance with the contract form and content requirements of the Act. Allows an agriculture producer 3 days to cancel a newly executed contract. Prohibits provisions stating that information contained within an agricultural contract is confidential. Grants an agriculture contract producer a priority lien on crops, livestock, raw milk, or the cash proceeds from the sales of those items, for moneys owed pursuant to the production contract. Provides restrictions on unilateral termination of contracts requiring the contract producer to make capital investments worth $100,000 or more. Provides that it is unlawful for any contractor or processor to interfere with the exercise of certain rights granted under the Act and establishes other unfair practices under the Act. Provides that any provision requiring the application of another state's law instead of the Act, or waiving a right or obligation under the Act, is void. Provides that all agriculture production contracts must contain a provision requiring mediation of contract disputes. Provides that the Attorney General shall enforce the Act by actions in the circuit court for equitable and monetary relief, including injunctive relief and criminal and civil fines and penalties. Provides a private cause of action to any party aggrieved by a violation of the Act and includes as remedies contract reformation and other equitable relief for the purpose of avoiding unjust enrichment. Effective July 1, 2001. FISCAL NOTE (Department of Agriculture) HB 524 would impose a cost of $120,000 a year on the Department for additional staff to review the agriculture producer con- tracts submitted under the bill. This cost figure could poten- tially be higher dependent upon the number of contracts sub- mitted to the Department for its review. FISCAL NOTE, H-AM 2 (Department of Agriculture) This bill would impose a cost of $120,000 a year upon the Dept. of Agriculture to implement. This total reflects the Depart- ment's need to hire one full-time attorney and one full-time paralegal to review the numerous agriculture producer contracts submitted to the Department for its review under HB 524. As it is impossible to estimate how many such contracts might be sub- mitted to the Department in any given year, this cost figure could potentially be higher dependent upon the number of such contracts submitted to the Department for its review. HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 2. Adds reference to: 5 ILCS 140/7 from Ch. 116, par. 207 Deletes everything. Creates the Agriculture Producer Protection Act. Requires agriculture production contracts to contain certain disclosures, meet readability guidelines, and include a summary sheet. Provides that the Director of Agriculture may review an agriculture production contract for compliance with the contract form and content requirements of the Act. Provides that provisions stating that information contained within an agricultural contract is confidential shall not prevent a producer from discussing all contract terms and details with specified persons. Provides restrictions on a contractor's unilateral termination of certain contracts. Provides that it is unlawful for any contractor to interfere with the exercise of certain rights granted under the Act and establishes other unfair practices under the Act. Provides that any provision requiring the application of the law of any state other than Illinois, requiring any action to be filed in a state other than Illinois, or waiving a right or obligation under the Act, is void. Provides that the Attorney General shall enforce the Act by actions in the circuit court for equitable and monetary relief, including injunctive relief and criminal and civil fines and penalties. Provides a private cause of action to any producer aggrieved by a violation of the Act and includes as remedies contract reformation and other equitable relief for the purpose of avoiding unjust enrichment. Amends the Freedom of Information Act to exempt production contracts submitted for review to the Director of Agriculture under the Agriculture Producer Protection Act. Provides that the Department of Agriculture must adopt rules implementing the Agriculture Producer Protection Act not later than January 1, 2002 and gives this and the effective date provision an immediate effective date. Provides that the remainder of the Act takes effect on January 1, 2002. Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: JAN-07-2003 Location: House Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 1 SENATE - 0 END OF INQUIRY Full Text Bill Status