STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2574

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2745

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2745 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DEFAMATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish that communication of defamatory statements by telephone, facsimile, electronic mail, or other computer communication meets the requirement of publication for defamation actions.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Law Offices of Marvin S.C. Dang, LLLC.

     In testimony before this Committee, members have heard that since April 2007, a number of Hawaii attorneys received thousands of e-mails from an anonymous sender.  The e-mails contain false, derogatory, and defamatory messages about specific attorneys and law offices, as well as politicians, and others.  These e-mails were also being sent to people outside the legal community and falsely identified as coming from a specific attorney.

     Your Committee finds that this measure will help to deter the use of e-mails to defame, harass, and intimidate people.

     Your Committee amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment.

     Your Committee also has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, for purposes of facilitating further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2745, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2745, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair