republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/153/sb-73.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LETHAL VIOLENCE PROTECTIVE ORDERS.	This bill clarifies that only law enforcement officers may petition for emergency relief in the Justice of the Peace Court pursuant to Title 10, Section 7703. The statute is currently ambiguous with regard to who may file pursuant to Section 7703. Section 7701(4) defines a "Petitioner" as a law enforcement officer or any person who would be qualified to file a Petition for Protection from Abuse. Section 7702(a) provides that "a petitioner may request relief under section 7703 (Emergency hearings) or Section 7704 (Nonemergency hearings)." However, Section 7703 only addresses the process a law enforcement officer must follow to procure a Lethal Violence Protective Order ("LVPO") and fails to mention any other class of petitioner. At the time of the passage of the LVPO statute, there was specific discussion and intention to prevent individuals from filing for emergencies in the Justice of the Peace Court for the same reason that citizen warrants are no longer accepted in that Court. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that Section 7703 does not prescribe any procedure or burden of proof an individual would need to meet to prevail in an emergency petition for a LVPO. As with Weapons Relinquishment Orders governed by Section 1448C of Title 11, this proposed bill requires requests for emergency relief to come through a law enforcement agency rather than directly from an individual member of the public. The bill removes the confusion that exists with the current wording of the statute.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	153	SB 73	Delaware SB 73 (153)	bill		enacted	Darius J. Brown Josue O Ortega Nicole Poore Ray Seigfried Timothy D. Dukes William J. Carson	0	7	1	2025-03-13	2025-08-20	openstates	ocd-bill/6f7ceb41-3a57-4550-b1d3-4b4690b351b2	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=141938	7a4807306dfd251948655482ca1908783a1eee7fc6822f72fcfe20df9c1aa56c	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware SB 73 (153) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LETHAL VIOLENCE PROTECTIVE ORDERS.

This bill clarifies that only law enforcement officers may petition for emergency relief in the Justice of the Peace Court pursuant to Title 10, Section 7703. The statute is currently ambiguous with regard to who may file pursuant to Section 7703. Section 7701(4) defines a "Petitioner" as a law enforcement officer or any person who would be qualified to file a Petition for Protection from Abuse. Section 7702(a) provides that "a petitioner may request relief under section 7703 (Emergency hearings) or Section 7704 (Nonemergency hearings)." However, Section 7703 only addresses the process a law enforcement officer must follow to procure a Lethal Violence Protective Order ("LVPO") and fails to mention any other class of petitioner. At the time of the passage of the LVPO statute, there was specific discussion and intention to prevent individuals from filing for emergencies in the Justice of the Peace Court for the same reason that citizen warrants are no longer accepted in that Court. This conclusion is borne out by the fact that Section 7703 does not prescribe any procedure or burden of proof an individual would need to meet to prevail in an emergency petition for a LVPO. As with Weapons Relinquishment Orders governed by Section 1448C of Title 11, this proposed bill requires requests for emergency relief to come through a law enforcement agency rather than directly from an individual member of the public. The bill removes the confusion that exists with the current wording of the statute.

Version chain

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

Votes

• SM — 40–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• Darius J. Brown — primary (person)
• Josue O Ortega — primary (person)
• Nicole Poore — primary (person)
• Ray Seigfried — primary (person)
• Timothy D. Dukes — primary (person)
• William J. Carson — primary (person)

Timeline

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

• 2025-03-13 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2025-03-26 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-04-08 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2025-04-09 Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2025-05-21 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 9 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2025-06-12 Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT passage
• 2025-08-20 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/6f7ceb41-3a57-4550-b1d3-4b4690b351b2. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).