---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FAMILY COURT PROCEDURE."
description: "This Act authorizes the Family Court to interview a child outside the presence of the parties for the purpose of obtaining the child's testimony and ascertaining the truth of a matter asserted by a party to a Protection from Abuse proceeding. The Court may permit counsel to be present during the interview and ask the child questions. The Court may also permit a party who is not present for the interview to submit questions of fact for the Court to use in interviewing the child. Interviews under this Act must be made a part of the record."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 141"
citation: "Delaware HB 141 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Margaret Rose Henry", "Sean M. Lynn"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-04-13"
last_action: "2017-06-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6a3d9859-0e99-44ac-b0ca-63d5f1725178"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25647"
source_hash: "cd61115e8645ecf745e06ddb58576e7cc120e0d592194556bff5d231baa3313e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 141 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO FAMILY COURT PROCEDURE.

This Act authorizes the Family Court to interview a child outside the presence of the parties for the purpose of obtaining the child's testimony and ascertaining the truth of a matter asserted by a party to a Protection from Abuse proceeding. The Court may permit counsel to be present during the interview and ask the child questions. The Court may also permit a party who is not present for the interview to submit questions of fact for the Court to use in interviewing the child. Interviews under this Act must be made a part of the record.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25647&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB141)

## Votes

- SM — **38–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
- Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Mulrooney — cosponsor (person)
- Sean Matthews — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-04-13** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-05-10** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 1 Favorable, 8 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-11** Passed By House. Votes: 38 YES 3 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-05-12** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-08** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2017-06-08** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2017-06-27** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6a3d9859-0e99-44ac-b0ca-63d5f1725178`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).