Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 69, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of the bill is to remove the three-year limits on protective orders and extensions of protective orders.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, the Honolulu Police Department, and the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that the current law limits an initial protective order to three years and one extension of an additional three years regardless of the various factors involved in domestic abuse situations. This measure would allow the court to take into account all factors to determine appropriate and reasonable time periods for protective orders beyond three or six years if necessary.

Your Committee amended this bill by requiring that the initial time period and extensions must be of reasonable lengths.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 69, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 69, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.