Delaware Senate Bill 119 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-2)
Status: Engrossed on June 24 2015 - 50% progression, died in committee
Action: 2015-06-25 - Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House
Pending: House Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

This Bill represents the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on the feasibility of opening Family Court proceedings to the public. The Bill provides that paternity, divorce, property division and alimony hearings are presumed to be public proceedings and that the Court has discretion to hold the proceedings in private for criteria specifically outlined. The Bill also clarifies that adoption, custody, visitation, third party visitation, termination of parental rights, guardianship, permanent guardianship, Child Protection Registry and dependency/neglect/abuse hearings are private, except that the Court may open the hearings to the public under a specific criteria.

An Act To Amend Titles 10, 13 And 16 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Public Access To Family Court Proceedings.

Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]	Rep. Stephanie Bolden [D]	Sen. Brian Bushweller [D]	Sen. Ernesto Lopez [R]
Rep. Paul Baumbach [D]	Rep. Helene Keeley [D]	Rep. Michael Ramone [R]

Date	Chamber	Action
2015-06-25	House	Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House
2015-06-24	Senate	Passed by Senate. Votes: Passed 21 YES 0 NO 0 NOT VOTING 0 ABSENT 0 VACANT
2015-06-18	Senate	Reported Out of Committee (JUDICIARY) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits, 2 Unfavorable
2015-06-09	Senate	Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/5bc338ca51a1c82f85257dcd006aeda8?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+119/$file/legis.html?open