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Committee backs bill to require prehearing facilitator in child-protection cases
Summary
The House Health and Human Services Committee voted to concur on Senate Bill 73, which requires a designated facilitator to convene parties in child-protection prehearing conferences and clarifies that the prehearing conference occurs whether or not a parent attends.
Senators and witnesses told the House Health and Human Services Committee that Senate Bill 73 aims to speed reconciliation in child-protection cases by ensuring a facilitator coordinates prehearing conferences after a child is removed.
Sponsor Sen. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings, told the committee the measure “provides increases [in] efficiency and better results of reconciliation for the child” and called the proposal “the efficiency bill.” The bill requires a facilitator or coordinator to bring parents, attorneys and other parties together and directs that certain steps occur within five days after a child’s removal.
The bill’s supporte…
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