Bill Text: NH HB335 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requiring courts to order a minor and their family have psychological evaluations and, if necessary, counseling, where parental rights and responsibilities are contested in a family court matter.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 8-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-21 - Public Hearing: 02/04/2025 01:45 pm Legislative Office Building 206-208 [HB335 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2025-HB335-Introduced.html
HB 335-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2025 SESSION
25-0577
11/09
HOUSE BILL 335-FN
SPONSORS: Rep. Post, Hills. 42; Rep. Ball, Rock. 25; Rep. Nelson, Rock. 13; Rep. Panek, Hills. 1; Rep. Perez, Rock. 16; Rep. Polozov, Merr. 10; Rep. Popovici-Muller, Rock. 17; Rep. Potucek, Rock. 13
COMMITTEE: Children and Family Law
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ANALYSIS
This bill requires a court to order a risk assessment and, if necessary, counseling, where parental rights and responsibilities are contested in a family court matter.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
25-0577
11/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Five
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Subparagraph; Required Risk Assessment. Amend RSA 461-A:4, II by inserting after subparagraph (h) the following new subparagraph:
(i) Court-ordered risk assessments.
2 New Section; Court-Ordered Risk Assessments. Amend RSA 461-A by inserting after section 6 the following new section:
461-A:6-a Court-Ordered Risk Assessments.
I. In contested divorce proceedings where a minor child under the age of 18 years rejects or is being withheld from a parent, the court shall order a risk assessment within 14 days of the initial petition for divorce, the cost of which shall be borne equally by the parties. The risk assessment shall be performed by a clinical psychologist credentialed in scientific research of and applied knowledge in the following areas:
(a) Family systems therapy to assess family conflict.
(b) Attachment pathology to assess a child rejecting a parent.
(c) Trauma pathology to assess possible child abuse or spousal abuse.
(d) Personality pathology to assess possible narcissistic-borderline-dark personality pathology.
(e) Child development to assess childhood pathology across multiple child developmental levels.
(f) Self-psychology to assess psychological development of children within the parent-child relationships.
II. A risk assessment order shall include the following constructs to be evaluated:
(a) A possible shared shared/induced persecutory delusion.
(b) A possible factitious attachment pathology being imposed on the child for secondary gain to the parent.
(c) A possible psychological child abuse.
(d) A parent-child relational problem.
(e) A child affected by parental relationship distress.
(f) Identity disturbance due to prolonged and intense coercive persuasion.
(g) Possible spousal psychological abuse of one parent using the child’s induced pathology as the spousal abuse weapon.
III. The risk assessment shall be performed within a reasonable period of time, but not to exceed 8 weeks after the order.
IV. The court shall require the clinical psychologist to include in their report a diagnosis and treatment plan, and the court's order shall include a directive that appropriate medical standards and mandatory ethics codes of all psychologists shall apply.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
25-0577
12/19/24
HB 335-FN- FISCAL NOTE
AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Legislative Budget Assistant has determined that this legislation has a total fiscal impact of less than $10,000 in each of the fiscal years 2025 through 2028.
AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Judicial Branch
