HB1108

The amendment substantially STRENGTHENS the bill by changing court file sealing from discretionary ("may") to mandatory ("must") for dismissed protection order petitions, and adds an entirely new requirement that courts also seal files when denying petitions if they find them frivolous or filed in bad faith, with law enforcement notification provisions. The bill now covers both protection orders under chapter 22-19A and domestic abuse orders under chapter 25-10, applying retroactively to electronically maintained records.

The amendment converted the bill from its engrossed (committee-revised) form to its enrolled (final passed) form by removing procedural markup language and adding official signature and certification pages required for enactment. The substantive provisions of the bill remain unchanged—it still requires sealing of court files for dismissed or denied protection order petitions under both domestic abuse and harassment statutes.