Clarifies that community mental health outpatient programs that have agreed to provide mental health services to a defendant as part of an assisted community treatment order may prepare a certificate for assisted community treatment and provide the certificate to a defendant and may file an assisted community treatment petition with the Family Court. (CD1)
Establishes comprehensive reforms to protect children and families from abuse and improve systemic responses. Part I: Establishes the calendar year 2027 as the Year of Resilience, Safety, and Survivor Justice. Part II: Modernizes statutory definitions of harm and child abuse. Part III: Recognizes coercive control as domestic abuse. Part IV: Reforms Family Court procedures to prioritize child safety and prohibit parental alienation theories. Part V: Defines economic abuse and strengthens financial protections, including automatic restraining orders, emergency hearings, forensic accounting authority, and liability for financial institutions. Part VI: Safeguards neurodivergent children and prohibits diagnosis shopping. Part VII: Protects reproductive privacy in custody proceedings. Part VIII: Enhances Child Welfare Services Branch accountability through audits and creation of a Child Welfare Ombudsman. Part IX: Requires automatic protective orders and custody restrictions in cases of severe violence. Part X: Creates a Family Violence Docket with mandatory judicial training and an advisory panel.
SB 2570 allocates extra funding for the state Judiciary to cover operations during the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium. It provides supplemental budget money specifically for court systems, judges, and related judicial services. This bill directly affects the Judiciary branch by ensuring continued funding for its core functions. The legislation is procedural, focusing solely on financial allocation without creating new policies or regulations.
Allows a court to consider relevant evidence and make a determination to grant, deny, or set conditions of bail. Requires that a defendant is to be presumed entitled to bail unless certain conditions are met. Requires a court to set aside the forfeiture of bail if the defendant voluntarily appears before the court or is surrendered by the surety or bail agent within ninety days after a failure to appear. Requires a court to obtain the consent of the surety or bail agent to reinstate bail. Clarifies qualifications for bail agents, insurers, and sureties. Clarifies the process for the discharge of bail agents, insurers, and sureties. Allows a court discretion to determine whether the forfeiture of bail is appropriate. Requires a motion by the principal to set aside an order of forfeiture to provide the surety or insurer with prompt notice affording opportunity to join the motion. Allows courts discretion to reinstate a bond or recognizance or return the bond or recognizance to the appropriate party after vacating a judgment of forfeiture.
Beginning 7/1/2027, requires the Judiciary to develop, implement, and administer an automated court appearance reminder system that generates text message or electronic mail notifications for upcoming court appearances in certain types of cases. Requires persons making an arrest or issuing a citation to obtain, to the extent practicable, the offender's mobile telephone number and electronic mail address. Appropriates funds. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)
Limits the maximum term of imprisonment for misdemeanors that are not crimes of violence, or for offenses that are not crimes of violence punishable by up to or not exceeding one year, to three hundred sixty-four days. Allows individuals previously sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment for an offense that is not a crime of violence to apply to the trial court for reconsideration of the sentence to conform to the revised maximum penalty. (CD1)
Allows a party aggrieved by the judgment of a circuit court on a minimum term order to appeal to the Intermediate Appellate Court. Requires prisoners to be represented by counsel in any petition challenging the minimum term proceedings. Requires the Supreme Court to establish rules. Establishes grounds for challenging a minimum term order. Appropriates funds. Effective 3/22/2075. (SD1)
Establishes the procedure that a circuit court shall follow upon the reversal or vacation of an individual's judgment of conviction on grounds consistent with innocence, and where the charges were dismissed. Requires the State to pay advance compensation to any petitioner who was convicted in a court of the State, imprisoned for at least one year, and whose judgment of conviction was reversed or vacated, or was pardoned, on grounds consistent with innocence. Requires the Comptroller to issue a warrant for payment of advance compensation to a petitioner. Requires the Department of Human Services, in collaboration with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to contract with a community-based agency to assign a case manager to a petitioner upon the petitioner's release. Requires the State to provide medical coverage to a person for a certain duration upon the reversal or vacation of the person's judgment of conviction on grounds consistent with innocence and where the charges were dismissed. Provides that the Judiciary and Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall retain jurisdiction over the person for the purposes of effectuating this process. Authorizes the State to seek reimbursement from the applicable county for any losses incurred by the State pursuant to this process. Requires the Department of the Attorney General to submit an annual report to the Legislature. Clarifies eligibility to seek compensation for individuals whose judgment of conviction was reversed or vacated, or who were pardoned, on grounds consistent with innocence, and where the charges were dismissed. Shifts the burden of proof to the State to prove by a preponderance of evidence that the reversal or vacation of the judgment of conviction for a petitioner, or the pardoning of the petitioner, was inconsistent with innocence. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)
Requires the court to impose a mandatory fine per violation for nuisance abatement laws related to gambling offenses. Allows citizens who bring civil nuisance abatement suits against places used for illegal gambling the same rights and protections as those afforded to victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings.
Increases the rate of compensation and maximum allowable amounts per case for court-appointed counsel in criminal proceedings. Appropriates funds. Effective 4/23/2057. (SD1)
