HB1108 — require the sealing of court files upon dismissal or denial of a petition for a protection order.
What changed between bill versions as it moved through the Legislature.
The amendment significantly STRENGTHENS the bill by changing sealing of protection order files from permissive ("may") to mandatory ("must"), expanding it to cover both dismissed and denied petitions, and adding requirements for courts to notify law enforcement and seal records based on specific findings that petitions were frivolous or abusive. The bill was also substantially revised to apply these same mandatory sealing requirements to a separate statute (chapter 25-10) and to retroactively seal electronically maintained records.
This change converts the bill from the engrossed House Judiciary version to its final enrolled form, removing the legislative process markings and adding official signature pages and attestation language required for final enactment—no substantive changes to the bill's requirement that courts seal protection order petitions dismissed or denied without proper factual or legal basis.