Judge warns H 628 could expand protection orders to require defendants to keep paying household bills

Summary

At a House Judiciary hearing on H 628, Chief Superior Judge Tom Zoney told lawmakers that adding a subsection letting courts order defendants to continue paying household bills could broaden orders of protection beyond their summary-protection purpose and urged clearer drafting, including a fixed time limit.

Chief Superior Judge Tom Zoney appeared before the House Judiciary panel to discuss H 628, a bill that would add a provision allowing courts to order a defendant to "continue to pay household bills for which the defendant was responsible" for a fixed period. Zoney told lawmakers the draft language for the proposed subsection f contains no explicit maximum time, unlike subsection e, which limits such relief to a fixed period not to exceed three months.

Why it matters: The change could let courts require continued payment of household bills in orders of protection even where there is no traditional "duty to support," potentially expanding the scope of short-term protective orders and introducing new factual disputes over which party was responsible for particular bills.

Zoney, identified in the transcript as "chief superior judge," said the critical legal distinction is between a…

Judge warns H 628 could expand protection orders to require defendants to keep paying household bills

Summary

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