HB 1481 is the companion bill to SB 5564.
HB 1481 allows a court to seal the juvenile record for individuals who have made a good faith effort to pay his or her restitution and convert the remaining restitution to a civil judgment. Further, the bill excludes juvenile offenders from many legal financial obligations, and makes some additional changes to the sealing process. The list of the legal financial obligations that are modified are included in the bill.
ELHS Committee Amendment: As amended, (1) County clerks must make restitution disbursements to victims prior to payments to insurance providers. (2) Courts may either order joint and several restitution or equally divide restitution among the respondents. (3) The agreement of the victim is required for the court to convert restitution to community service. (4) If an individual whose record has been sealed with restitution owing does not make at least four payments in the first five months or 80 percent of the payments thereafter, the record is no longer sealed. (5) Courts must order a payment plan after sealing a juvenile court record for which restitution is still owing. (6) Notice of a contested sealing must be sent to the victim. (7) County clerks are authorized to interact or correspond with an offender, his or her parents, and holders of assets or wages for purposes of collecting outstanding LFOs after a juvenile court record is sealed. (8) The DNA collection fee may not be imposed on juveniles if the state has previously collected the juvenile’s DNA.
