Provides for the simplification of the marriage process, including the reduction of fees, criteria for license, and turnaround time.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 572-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (a) and (b) to read as follows:

"§572-5 Marriage license; agent to grant; fee. (a) The department of health shall appoint, and at its pleasure remove, one or more suitable persons as agents authorized to grant marriage licenses under this chapter in each judicial circuit. The agents may issue licenses from any state facility when deemed necessary by the director. Any agent appointed under this subsection and receiving an application for a marriage license shall collect from the applicant for the license $[50] 25, of which the agent, except those provided for in subsection (b), shall retain $9 for the agent's benefit and compensation and shall remit [$41] $16 to the director of health. Upon the receipt of remittances under this subsection, the director of health shall deposit:

(b) The department may appoint, as regular employees under the civil service and classification laws, the number of suitable persons as agents authorized to grant marriage licenses for whom provision has been made in the general appropriation act. In the case of these agents, the full amount collected from applicants shall be remitted to the director of health. Upon the receipt of remittances under this subsection, the director of health shall deposit:

SECTION 2. Section 572-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§572-6 Application; license; limitations. To secure a license to marry, the persons applying for the license shall appear personally before an agent authorized to grant marriage licenses and shall file with the agent an application in writing. The application shall be accompanied by a statement signed and sworn to by each of the persons, setting forth: the person's full name, date of birth, social security number, residence; their relationship, if any; the full names of parents; and that all prior marriages, if any, have been dissolved by death or dissolution. If all prior marriages have been dissolved by death or dissolution, the statement shall also set forth the date of death of the last prior spouse or the date and jurisdiction in which the last decree of dissolution was entered. Any other information consistent with the standard marriage certificate as recommended by the Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics, may be requested for statistical or other purposes, subject to approval of and modification by the department of health; provided that the information shall be provided at the option of the applicant and no applicant shall be denied a license for failure to provide the information. The agent shall indorse on the application, over the agent's signature, the date of the filing thereof and shall issue a license which shall bear on its face the date of issuance. Every license shall be of full force and effect for [thirty] sixty days commencing from and including the date of issuance. After the [thirty] sixty-day period, the license shall become void and no marriage ceremony shall be performed thereon.

It shall be the duty of every person, legally authorized to grant licenses to marry, to immediately report the issuance of every marriage license to the agent of the department of health in the district in which the license is issued, setting forth all facts required to be stated in such manner and on such form as the department may prescribe."

SECTION 3. Section 572-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§572-13 Record of solemnization; marriages, reported by whom; certified copies. (a) Recordkeeping. Every person authorized to solemnize marriage shall make and preserve a record of every marriage by the person solemnized, comprising the names of the man and woman married, their place of residence, and the date of their marriage.

Every person authorized to solemnize marriage, who neglects to keep a record of any marriage by the person solemnized shall be fined $50.

(b) Marriages, reported by whom. It shall be the duty of every person, legally authorized to perform the marriage ceremony, to report within three business days every marriage ceremony, performed by the person, to the agent of the department of health in the district in which the marriage takes place setting forth all facts required to be stated in a standard certificate of marriage, the form and contents of which shall be prescribed by the department of health.

(c) Certified copies of certificate of marriage. The department of health shall deliver one certified copy of the certificate of marriage or the contents or any part thereof as provided in section 338-13 to the persons married within 10 business days. The certificate shall be prima facie evidence of the fact of marriage in any proceeding in any court.

The department of health shall upon request, furnish to any applicant additional certified copies of the certificate of marriage or any part thereof.

Copies of the contents of any certificate on file in the department, certified by the department shall be considered for all purposes the same as the original.

The department may prescribe reasonable fees not exceeding $10, if any, to be paid for certified copies of certificates."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.