The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee heard HB 1299 authored by Reps. Zent and Clere on creation of an electronic case management system to provide data to the Indiana Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The bill provides that the office of judicial administration (administration) shall develop and implement a standard protocol to electronically send or receive at least one time each week criminal case information between the administration’s court case management system and the Indiana department of veterans’ affairs (department) concerning individuals in the: (1) United States Department of Defense data base of individuals whose military service qualifies the individual for veterans benefits; and (2) national guard registries, in collaboration with the national guard; for use by county prosecutors and a veterans’ court in helping to address the needs of veterans in the court system. The bill also provides that the administration shall cross-reference the names obtained from the department with the names of individuals in the court case management system.
Testimony was presented in favor of the bill by the Director of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Judge David Certo, the Veterans’ Coalition of Indiana, and the Indiana Public Defender Council. The bill was amended to change the effective date to January 1, 2020 and redefine the nature of the data to be provided to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The bill passed as amended 11 – 0.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2019/bills/house/1299.