Bill Text: WV HB2818 | 2011 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Increasing the allowable expenses to be paid to victims by the Crime Victim Compensation Fund

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Passed) 2011-06-08 - Effective Date [HB2818 Detail]

Download: West_Virginia-2011-HB2818-Comm_Sub.html

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COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2818
(By Delegates Manchin, Caputo, Fleischauer,
Fragale, Guthrie, Poore, Skaff,
Doyle and Stowers )
(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)
[January 27, 2011]

A BILL to amend and reenact §14-2A-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to increasing the allowable expense under the Crime Victims Award Program; increasing the amount that may be paid for the clean-up of real property damage by a methamphetamine laboratory; and making technical revisions.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §14-2A-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended to read as follows:

ARTICLE 2A. COMPENSATION AWARDS TO VICTIMS OF CRIMES.

§14-2A-3. Definitions.
As used in this article, the term:
(a) "Claimant" means any of the following persons, whether residents or nonresidents of this state, who claim an award of compensation under this article:
(1) A victim, except the term "victim" does not include a nonresident of this state where the criminally injurious act did not occur in this state;
(2) A dependent, spouse or minor child of a deceased victim or, in the event that the if the deceased victim is a minor, the parents, legal guardians and siblings of the victim;
(3) A third person, other than a collateral source, who legally assumes or voluntarily pays the obligations of a victim or of a dependent of a victim which a victim's dependent when the obligations are incurred as a result of the criminally injurious conduct that is the subject of the claim;
(4) A person who is authorized to act on behalf of a victim, dependent or a third person who is not a collateral source including, but not limited to, assignees, persons holding power of attorney or other persons others who hold authority to make or submit claims in place of or on behalf of a victim, a dependent or third person who is not a collateral source and in the event that if the victim, dependent or third person who is not a collateral source is a minor or other legally incompetent person, the their duly qualified fiduciary; of the minor;
(5) A person who is a secondary victim in need of mental health counseling due to the person's exposure to the crime committed An award to a secondary victim whose award may not exceed $1,000; and
(6) A person who owns real property damaged by the operation of a methamphetamine laboratory without the knowledge or consent of the owner of the real property.
(b) "Collateral source" means a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss otherwise compensable that the victim or claimant has received or that is readily available to him or her from any of the following sources:
(1) The offender, including any restitution received from the offender pursuant to an order by a court of law sentencing the offender or placing him or her on probation following a conviction in a criminal case arising from the criminally injurious act for which a claim for compensation is made;
(2) The government of the United States or any of its agencies, a state or any of its political subdivisions or an instrumentality of two or more states;
(3) Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid;
(4) State-required, temporary, nonoccupational disability insurance or other disability insurance;
(5) Workers' compensation;
(6) Wage continuation programs of any an employer;
(7) Proceeds of a contract of insurance payable to the victim or claimant for loss that was sustained because of the criminally injurious conduct;
(8) A contract providing prepaid hospital and other health care services or benefits for disability; and
(9) That portion of the proceeds of all contracts of insurance payable to the claimant on account of the death of the victim which exceeds $25,000.
(c) "Criminally injurious conduct" means conduct that occurs or is attempted in this state, or in any state not having a victim compensation program, which by its nature poses a substantial threat of personal injury or death and is punishable by fine, or imprisonment or death or would be so punishable but for the fact that the person engaging in the conduct lacked capacity a finding by a court of competent jurisdiction that the person committing the crime lacked capacity. Criminally injurious conduct also includes criminally injurious conduct committed outside of the United States against a resident of this state. Criminally injurious conduct does not include conduct arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle except when unless the person engaging in the conduct intended to cause personal injury or death or when the person engaging in the conduct committed negligent homicide, driving under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances or drugs, reckless driving or when the person leaves leaving the scene of the accident or reckless driving.
(d) "Dependent" means an individual who received over half of his or her support from the victim. For the purpose of determining whether an individual received over half of his or her support from the victim, making this determination there shall be taken into account the amount of support received from the victim as compared to the entire amount of support which the individual received from all sources including support which the individual himself or herself supplied. self-support. The term "support" includes, but is not limited to, food, shelter, clothing, medical and dental care and education. The term "dependent" includes a child of the victim born after his or her death.
(e) "Economic loss" means economic detriment consisting only of allowable expense, work loss and replacement services loss. If criminally injurious conduct causes death, economic loss includes a dependent's economic loss and a dependent's replacement services loss. Noneconomic detriment is not economic loss, however, economic loss may be caused by pain and suffering or physical impairment. For purposes of this article, the term "economic loss" includes a lost scholarship as defined in this section.
(f) (1) "Allowable expense" means reasonable charges incurred or to be incurred for reasonably needed products, services and accommodations, including those for medical care, mental health counseling, prosthetic devices, eye glasses, dentures, rehabilitation and other remedial treatment and care.
(f) "Allowable expense" includes the following:
(1) Reasonable charges incurred or to be incurred for reasonably needed products, services and accommodations including those for medical care, mental health counseling, prosthetic devices, eye glasses, dentures, rehabilitation and other remedial treatment and care but does not include that portion of a charge for a room in a hospital, clinic, convalescent home, nursing home or other institution engaged in providing nursing care and related services which is in excess of a reasonable and customary charge for semiprivate accommodations unless accommodations other than semiprivate accommodations are medically required;
(2) Allowable expense includes A total charge not in excess of $7,000 for expenses in any way related to funerals, cremations and burials; It does not include that portion of a charge for a room in a hospital, clinic, convalescent home, nursing home or any other institution engaged in providing nursing care and related services in excess of a reasonable and customary charge for semiprivate accommodations unless accommodations other than semiprivate accommodations are medically required.
(3) Allowable expense also includes:
(A) (3) A charge, not to exceed five thousand dollars $10,000, for cleanup of real property damaged by a methamphetamine laboratory or a charge not to exceed $1,000 for any other crime scene cleanup;
(B) (4) Victim relocation costs not to exceed $2,000;
(C) (5) Reasonable travel expenses not to exceed $1,000 for a claimant to attend court proceedings that are conducted for the prosecution of the offender;
(D) (6) Reasonable travel expenses for a claimant to return a person who is a minor or incapacitated adult who has been unlawfully removed from this state to another state or country if the removal constitutes a crime under the laws of this state Reasonable travel expenses to another state for that purpose may not exceed $2,000 and reasonable travel expenses for that purpose to another county may not exceed $3,000; and which may not exceed $2,000 for expenses to another state or $3,000 to another country; and
(E) (7) Reasonable travel expenses for the transportation of a victim to and from a medical facility.
(g) "Work loss" means loss of income from work that the injured person would have performed if he or she had not been injured and expenses reasonably incurred or to be incurred by him or her to obtain services in lieu of those he or she would have performed for income. "Work loss" is reduced by any income from substitute work actually performed or to be performed by him or her or by income he or she would have earned in available appropriate substitute work that he or she was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake. "Work loss" also includes loss of income from work by the parent or legal guardian of a minor victim who must miss work to take care of the minor victim.
(h) "Replacement services loss" means expenses reasonably incurred or to be incurred in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the injured person would have performed not for income but for the benefit of himself or herself or his or her family if he or she had not been injured. "Replacement services loss" does not include services an injured person would have performed to generate income.
(i) "Dependent's economic loss" means loss after a victim's death of contributions or things of economic value to his or her dependents not including but does not include services they would have received from the victim if he or she had not suffered the fatal injury. less expenses of the dependents avoided by reason of the victim's death. This amount is reduced by expenses avoided by the dependent due to the victim's death.
(j) "Dependent's replacement service loss" means loss reasonably incurred or to be incurred by dependents after a victim's death in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the victim would have performed for their benefit if he or she had not suffered the fatal injury. less expenses of the dependents avoided by reason of the victim's death and not This amount is reduced by expenses avoided due to the victim's death but which are not already subtracted in calculating a dependent's economic loss.
(k) "Victim" means the following:
(1) A person who suffers personal injury or death as a result of any one of the following:
(1) (A) Criminally injurious conduct;
(2) (B) The good faith effort of the person to prevent criminally injurious conduct; or
(3) (C) The good faith effort of the person to apprehend a person that the injured person has observed engaging in criminally injurious conduct or who the injured person has reasonable cause to believe has engaged in criminally injurious conduct immediately prior to the attempted apprehension. "Victim" includes the owner of real property damaged by the operation of a methamphetamine laboratory.
(2) The owner of real property damaged by the operation of a methamphetamine laboratory.
(l) "Contributory misconduct" means any conduct of the claimant or of the victim through whom the claimant claims an award that is unlawful or intentionally tortious and that, without regard to the conduct's proximity in time or space to the criminally injurious conduct, has a causal relationship to the criminally injurious conduct that is the basis of the claim and shall also include includes the voluntary intoxication of the claimant, either by the consumption of alcohol or the use of any controlled substance, when the intoxication has a causal connection or relationship to the injury sustained.
(m) "Lost scholarship" means a scholarship, academic award, stipend or other monetary scholastic assistance which had been awarded or conferred upon a victim in conjunction with a post- secondary school educational program and which the victim is unable to receive or use, in whole or in part, due to injuries received from criminally injurious conduct.