Delaware House Bill 418 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-5)
Status: Introduced on May 27 2010 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2010-06-16 - Assigned to Veterans Affairs Committee in House
Pending: House Veterans Affairs Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

Modeled on legislation adopted by other states, this Act adopts a “Military Parents’ Rights Act” to provide military service members with certain substantive rights and procedural protections designed to ensure that an absence due to military deployment does not result in a forfeiture or diminution of the military parent’s custody or visitation rights. The act incorporates existing Delaware law by providing that any custody, primary residential placement or visitation order entered when a military parent is deploying or deployed shall be interim order which may be modified upon the service member’s return to the United States or termination of service. The Act also guarantees that a military parent’s absence due to deployment shall not constitute the sole basis for a modification of any existing custody, residential placement or visitation order. Further, the Act provides for the temporary modification of any custody, residential placement or visitation order due to a military parent’s impending deployment and assures that requests for a temporary modification are heard on an expedited basis by the Family Court. Temporary modification orders shall contain a transition provision which, consistent with the best interest of the child, will facilitate a return to the pre-deployment order over the shortest reasonable time period after deployment ends. The Act also allows military service members to delegate their visitation rights to another family member, such as a parent or current spouse, if the Family Court determines that the delegation of visitation rights is consistent with the child’s best interests. Finally, the Act permits military service members to provide evidence by electronic means if they cannot appear due to deployment and further imposes obligations on both the deploying and non-deploying parent to cooperate and disclose information in an effort to resolve any custody, residential placement and visitation matters related to the military service member’s deployment.

An Act To Amend Title 13 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Custody Proceedings.

Rep. Michael Barbieri [D]	Rep. Edward Bennett [D]	Rep. Donald Blakey [R]	Rep. Gerald Brady [D]
Rep. Ruth Briggs King [R]	Rep. Ruth Briggs King [R]	Sen. George Bunting [D]	Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]
Sen. Margaret Henry [D]	Sen. Gerald Hocker [R]	Rep. Earl Jaques [D]	Rep. Helene Keeley [D]
Rep. John Mitchell [D]	Rep. Darryl Scott [D]	Rep. Daniel Short [R]	Sen. Robert Venables [D]
Rep. Robert Walls [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2010-06-16		Assigned to Veterans Affairs Committee in House
2010-06-09		Reported Out of Committee (VETERANS AFFAIRS) in House with 11 On Its Merits
2010-05-27		Introduced and Assigned to Veterans Affairs Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/d5f64c1df1a87e158525771a005711db?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis145.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+418/$file/legis.html?open