The New Year Brings New Laws

As Connecticut residents welcome the new year, they can also welcome 17 new laws that went into effect Jan. 1.

Many of the changes focus on the overhaul of the state's probate court system (learn about Branford's ), while others make adjustments to various insurance-related issues, from medical and dental coverage to personal risk, automobile, and long-term disability plans.

Sections of Public Act 09-114 outline the overhaul of the state's probate court system and, specifically, the establishment of a special commission to oversee the work. It determines everything from how judges' retirements are funded, how they establish their annual budgets and how they are compensated. It also establishes the new court districts throughout the state, establishes their hours and specifies how they must operate.

Sections of Public Act 10-184 set fees for probate courts and specify how their proceedings are recorded, while Public Act 10-41 dictates how the courts must operate.

One new law will allow food producers to sell a larger variety of canned goods at farmers' markets, and another requires that everyone, regardless of his or her age, takes a motorcycle driver's safety course before obtaining a motorcycle license.

If you want to learn more about the new legislation that could affect you in 2011, take a peek here for a complete list of all the changes. Here are a few highlights:

•  PA 09-177 incorporates some technical changes to Title 29 (Public Safety and State Police) to include more details about the state Fire Prevention Code and how the Commissioner of Public Safety oversees its application.
• PA 10-52 makes it a little less attractive for telemarketers to try to circumvent the state no-call list by increasing the penalty to a maximum of $11,000 for each violation.
• PA 10-63 requires health insurance policies to treat intravenously- and orally-administered cancer medications equally.

• PA 10-103 allows consumers to purchase "acidified foods" such as salsa, pickles, and hot sauce, at local farmer's markets – as long as the products are made with produce grown on that farm and the product have a label warning customers that the contents in the jar were prepared in a kitchen exempt from government inspection.

• PA 10-110 gives the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to require some people who violate state motor vehicle laws to take an operator's retaining program. The act details who is certified to teach such as class, as well as the course requirements.

• PA 10-117 establishes the Health Information Technology Exchange of Connecticut and makes it the lead public entity for health information exchange in the state, a designation previously held by the state Department of Public Health.

• PA 10-153 requires everyone, no matter his or her age, whom has not possessed a license to operate a motorcycle within the preceding two years, to take and pass a motorcycle education course before being granted a license to operate such a vehicle.