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Heated testimony as committee considers rewritten parenting-plan law; advocates, judges and survivors clash over House amendments
Summary
A comprehensive rewrite of Washington's parenting-plan law, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1620, produced hours of divided testimony as judges, domestic-violence advocates, survivors and legal-service providers disagreed over protections for children and limits on judicial discretion.
Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1620, a major rewrite of the law governing parenting plans in dissolution and legal-separation cases, drew extensive testimony and sharply divergent views at the Senate Law & Justice Committee public hearing.
Staff counsel Patrick Moore summarized the bill as reorganizing and revising when courts may impose limitations on parenting time and decision-making because of a parent's conduct, adding new definitions and establishing procedures for cases involving allegations of child abuse and domestic violence (the bill uses the term "domestic abuse"). The statutory structure would also restrict courts from ordering certain dispute-resolution processes when a parent has engaged in specified abusive conduct, and would require written findings in some circumstances.
Judges and judicial associations told the committee they support the original bill that committee…
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