Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 69 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow an extension of a protective order for a period of time as the court deems appropriate.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, Hawai'i State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Battered/Formerly Battered Women's Caucus-Hawaii, YWCA of Kauai, and four private citizens. Testimony in opposition was received from the Public Defender.

Current law limits the period of extending a protective order to three years, the same limit as for the initial order. Testimony indicated that the many variables in domestic abuse situations can transform the three-year period into a serious obstacle to the order's effectiveness. The best examples of the weakened protection created by the present law are the most dangerous domestic violence situations, such as attempted homicide, felony assault, or felony sexual assault. In those cases, the perpetrator faces a prison sentence that is more than three years. The protective order of three years would expire while the perpetrator is in prison.

If a protective order expires before the perpetrator is released from prison, the victim would have to wait for a new act of violence to seek a new protective order. This could well mean serious bodily injury or death to the victim.

This measure is intended to give judges flexibility in exercising their judicial discretion on the appropriate amount of time for protective orders. Your Committee intends that judges exercise a degree of prudence in setting a time limit that will adequately protect the victim, particularly in cases where the perpetrator is serving a prison sentence for a related offense or another offense. Your Committee believes that a protective order should remain in effect for a reasonable period of time to adequately protect the victim.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

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