Committee accepts three subcommittee reports, urges clearer notice and recommends more judicial support; final report delayed to next week

CONCORD — The Special Committee on the Family Division of the Circuit Court on Tuesday unanimously accepted three subcommittee reports and debated how to improve notice, remedies and staffing for family cases.

Chairman Pearson opened the committee and presented a report from the subcommittee on court communication, which was prompted by a case in which a litigant said she did not receive notice of a motion. Attorney Erin Cregan, general counsel for the court system, told the committee the judiciary has begun a multi-court review and completed recent training for judges and clerks using the case as a study. "We did a review of all of the courts," Cregan said, adding the circuit-court review is ongoing and a study of possible rule changes, including one to ensure delivery of newly filed motions, is expected to take about three months.

The committee discussed a pilot program the Supreme Court has begun to send direct text messages with case information; Cregan said a Rockingham County pilot for text-message notifications in criminal cases may expand to other case types if successful.

In a second report, Representative Lynn, who chaired the perjury subcommittee and is a former chief justice, summarized testimony that perjury and false-statement offenses can be prosecuted but are often hard to prove. Lynn said judges frequently respond by indicating on the record that they do not find a given witness credible rather than pursuing criminal prosecution, to avoid escalating discord in family cases. "The basic remedy for perjury ... is that the fact finder ... simply don't believe the person," Lynn said. The subcommittee recommended the judicial branch consider more robust publications for litigants on available remedies.

The committee then heard a Title IV review from Representative Catawba on how federal child-support funding operates in the state. Catawba said family court activity under Title IV is limited to actions such as establishing uniform support orders and paternity testing, and noted a federal presumption that can trigger automatic wage garnishment. She said the federal requirement supports roughly $19,000,000 a year in related funding and that changing that presumption would require federal action. "If we aren't compliant with it, then we wouldn't be eligible for not only Title B funding, but also Title A and E funding as well, which approximates to about $19,000,000 a year," Catawba said.

Committee members raised concerns about the collateral effects of garnishment questions on background checks and employment. Representative McBeath suggested the state could examine its forms to reduce stigma while acknowledging national security and federal clearance checks are outside state authority.

Votes at a glance

- Court communication subcommittee report: Accepted (motion by the chair; roll call announced as 7–0). - Perjury subcommittee report: Accepted (motion by Representative Lynn; roll call announced as 8–0). - Title IV (Social Security Act) subcommittee report: Accepted (motion moved and roll called; announced as 8–0).

The committee debated whether to adopt the interim report as the final report and whether to include an addendum listing laws passed "in part" because of committee testimony and a recommendation that the legislature consider additional judicial resources (law clerks or other judicial assistance) for the family division. Representative Lynn moved to adopt the interim report with the three subcommittee reports and attachments and to include language urging the legislature to consider additional resources; members discussed adding specific phrasing but did not vote on that motion.

Instead, by straw poll the committee chose not to finalize the report today. Members asked colleagues to submit suggested wording in advance to Vice Chair Smith, who will collate proposed language. The committee scheduled a final meeting for next Tuesday at 09:30 to vote on the final report and adjourned.

What happens next

The judiciary will continue its study of motion-notice procedures and report back to the committee; committee members will submit suggested edits to the interim report to Vice Chair Smith ahead of the scheduled meeting next Tuesday. The committee also urged the judicial branch to pursue the pilot text-notification programs and consider public-facing materials explaining remedies for alleged false statements in family proceedings.

Reporting: This account is based on testimony from Attorney Erin Cregan and remarks by Representative Lynn and Representative Catawba during the Special Committee on the Family Division of the Circuit Court meeting.