STAND. COM. REP. NO. 31

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                   

 

RE:     S.B. No. 214

        S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 214 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CHILD PROTECTIVE ACT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the court to appoint counsel to indigent parents in foster care cases and make every effort to do so at the first hearing attended by the parent.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Hawaii Access to Justice Commission, Lawyers for Equal Justice, National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, and Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaii Supreme Court held in In the Interest of T.M., 131 Haw. 419 (2014), that under the due process clause of the Hawaii State Constitution, indigent parents are guaranteed the right to a court-appointed counsel in termination of parental rights proceedings.  Your Committee further finds that as currently written, the Hawaii Revised Statutes does not require the court to appoint counsel to indigent parents in termination of parental rights proceedings.  Instead, as currently written, the appointment of counsel to indigent parents is discretionary.  This measure therefore requires that the court appoint counsel to indigent parents in termination of parental rights proceedings, which will ensure that indigent parents have the right to counsel when their parental rights are in jeopardy.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing language that would have limited the appointment of an attorney to indigent parents in parental rights proceedings to solely foster care cases; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 214, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 214, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

________________________________

RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair