STAND. COM. REP. NO 625

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 758

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 758, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SERVICE BY PUBLICATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to specify means for effecting service of process when personal service is unsuccessful, by:

     (1)  Publication three times in a newspaper of general circulation; or

     (2)  Publication on a state website together with publication once in a newspaper.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and the Collection Law Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Honolulu Star Advertiser.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

     Your Committee finds that with the development of electronic technology, the law should be updated to allow for service of process by publication on the website of the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Amending the criteria for a newspaper being of general circulation by:

          (A)  Providing that the newspaper has been distributed for a minimum of one year as of the date of first publication of the notice under certain circumstances; and

          (B)  Deleting the requirement that the newspaper be distributed to three percent of the residents of the circuit in which the civil action is filed;

     (2)  Providing that service by publication on a state website be on the website of the Department of the Attorney General; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 758, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 758, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair