STAND. COM. REP. NO. 724

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 560

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 560 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE JUDICIARY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Judiciary for services contracted with community-based organizations that deliver essential services, streamline judicial processes, and support the Judiciary's capacity to effectively meet the needs of vulnerable households.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary; Hawaiʻi Youth Services Network; Kuʻikahi Mediation; Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition; Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi; The Legal Clinic; Volunteer Legal Services Hawaiʻi; Parents and Children Together; Hawaiʻi True Cost Coalition; Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc.; EPIC ʻOhana; Aloha United Way; Child & Family Service; Hawaiʻi Youth Services Network; The Institute for Human Services, Inc.; The Mediation Center of the Pacific, Inc.; Partners In Development Foundation; Responsive Caregivers of Hawaii; Samaritan Counseling Center Hawaii; YMCA of Honolulu; Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi State Coalition Against Domestic Violence; YWCA; Community Alliance on Prisons; and three individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that community-based organizations play a vital role in delivering essential services that strengthen access to justice, including legal aid, mediation, case management, and behavioral interventions. This measure will provide increased funding for the Judiciary for services contracted with community-based organizations that will assist low-income and vulnerable residents in navigating the legal process and avoiding long-term consequences that result without representation or assistance.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 560, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 560, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair