STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2263

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2725

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2725 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONFIDENTIALITY OF FORENSIC MENTAL HEALTH EXAMINATION REPORTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require courts to maintain mental health examination reports as confidential documents, subject to specific exceptions.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the intent of this measure with amendments from the Hawaii Association for Justice.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that while defendants have the right to expect that records of their mental health examination made pursuant to court order will be kept confidential, it is in the interests of justice that these records be disclosable at the direction of any criminal or civil court upon a showing of good cause.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the standard of disclosure from necessary for the public interest to a showing of good cause to allow for disclosure in civil actions; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and accuracy in the language of this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2725, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2725, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair