HB 909

Abstract

Amends the Children's Advocacy Center Act. Provides that consent is not required for a forensic interview to be electronically recorded and that failure to record does not render a forensic interview inadmissible. Provides that a forensic interview, an electronic recording, or a transcription of an interview or electronic recording is confidential and exempt from public inspection and copying and may only be viewed by a court, attorneys, investigators, or experts for the purpose of judicial and administrative hearings and shall not be disseminated except pursuant to a court's protective order. Provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to limit or prohibit electronically recorded forensic interviewing in accordance with provisions concerning surveillance and investigations in the Criminal Code of 2012 and Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Adds a definition and modifies a definition. Amends the Freedom of Information Act making conforming changes. Effective January 1, 2020. House Floor Amendment No. 1 Defines a "forensic interview transcription" as a verbatim transcript of a forensic interview for the purpose of translating the interview into another language. Makes a conforming change.