Committee approves bill to tighten domestic-violence guardrails in custody cases

The House Standing Committee on Families and Children on Wednesday approved House Bill 4 18, a measure proponents said strengthens how family courts consider domestic violence in custody and visitation decisions.

Representative Jason Nemas, who introduced the bill and identified himself as representing District 33, told the committee that the legislation is designed to “make sure Kentucky family courts treat domestic violence the way it actually affects families” and to protect the nonoffending parent. “Children are safest with a parent who keeps them safe, and our laws should say it so clearly,” Nemas said.

Meg Savage, identified in the record as chief legal officer for an organization the transcript calls “0 v” (described there as a coalition representing the state’s 15 regional domestic-violence shelters), said the bill would require courts to “look first and foremost at the violence that has happened within the family” before considering other custody factors. Savage said the bill would require parents the court finds engaged in two or more acts of domestic violence to complete parenting or intervention classes or other treatment before unsupervised visitation is allowed.

Darlene Thomas, executive director of Greenhouse 17, gave examples of how untrained parenting coordinators and paid supervised-visitation providers can unintentionally increase risks to survivors and children. She said the bill’s training requirements for paid providers and parenting coordinators are intended to reduce those harms.

Committee members asked about fiscal impacts and whether the bill’s two-incident presumption might in some cases under-inclusively treat single severe incidents. Witnesses said no fiscal note had been prepared for the training component; the coalition offered to provide training resources for the paid providers the bill targets. Savage and others emphasized the presumption is rebuttable and that courts may still restrict custody or visitation after a single especially severe incident.

The committee adopted the committee substitute and took a roll-call vote; the bill passed the committee 14 to 0 and was reported with favorable expression to the House floor.

What’s next: The committee’s favorable report sends the bill to the full House for consideration.