HCS HB 371 Falkner, Bill Committee
HCS HB 371 -- CERTAIN COURT RECORDS
SPONSOR: Falkner
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on Judiciary by a vote of 13 to 0. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules- Administration Oversight by a vote of 7 to 0.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 371.
This bill specifies that a parent, spouse, child, or personal representative of a person who was convicted of a misdemeanor offense may petition the court to have the record of the offense made confidential in any automated case management system if the person has been deceased for six months or more. The petition must be accompanied by a copy of a death certificate. Before making the record confidential in the system, the court must determine whether any person would be unfairly prejudiced by having such record made confidential.
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that this would allow relatives to remove the name of a deceased person from a court record. It would not be an expungement; it would just be a removal from CaseNet.
Testifying in person for the bill was Representative Falkner.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.