OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS

Legislative Office Building, Room 5200

Hartford, CT 06106 ↓ (860) 240-0200

http: //www. cga. ct. gov/ofa

sHB-5365

AN ACT CONCERNING COURT OPERATIONS AND VICTIM SERVICES.

OFA Fiscal Note

State Impact:

Note: GF=General Fund; CICF=Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund

Municipal Impact: None

Explanation

The bill makes various revisions to statutes concerning the Judicial Department court operations and the Office of Victim Services, with fiscal impacts as follows:

Section 7 provides for the electronic delivery of court notices, orders, decisions, executions or other documents by court clerks and will result in a savings to the Judicial Department of $120,000. ¹

Section 27 authorizes the Office of Victim Services (OVS) within the Judicial Department to compensate individuals who are victims of sexual assault or child abuse and have disclosed the information to certain individuals. To the extent that victims take advantage of this change, an estimated increased cost of $50,000 to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund (CICF) will result in order to provide compensation to qualifying victims. ² This estimate assumes about 30 victims will receive compensation as a result of this change.

Sections 28 and 29 remove the $100 deductible that is required before a crime victim can receive compensation. To the extent that this increases the number of people who are eligible for victim compensation, an estimated increased cost of $22,500 to the CICF will result in order to provide compensation to victims who have total losses of less than $100. This estimate assumes 300 additional victims will receive compensation of $100 or less.

Section 30 clarifies that the OVS is entitled to be reimbursed for compensation it has paid to victims who have received compensation for the same item from another source, regardless of the source. As this currently does not occur in many instances, the amount estimated to be recovered is less than $30,000 as a result of this change.

The Out Years

The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would continue into the future subject to the number of victims seeking compensation.