HB 1452 Summary

• Establishes the Hawaii Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable with the Attorney General and Director of Human Services as co-chairs, including representatives from 11 state agencies including Health, Commerce, Labor, Public Housing Authority, and Public Safety.

• Roundtable shall coordinate across agencies to improve access to justice for low-income and vulnerable populations, develop policy recommendations, conduct research on civil legal aid, and evaluate how providing legal services advances agency missions.

• Roundtable must submit annual reports to the governor and legislature by day 20 before each regular session, including data on resource deployment, spending on legal services, and policy recommendations.

• Roundtable must submit a separate report on the economic impact of funding civil legal services by January 1, 2021.

• Appropriates unspecified general revenue funds for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 to support the roundtable operations and for the judiciary to purchase civil legal services for low- and moderate-income persons; effective July 1, 2019.