On Friday, a new bipartisan law called House Bill 393 came into effect, in Texas. It requires drunken drivers to pay child support if they kill a parent or guardian. The support should be paid till the youths are eighteen, or till they graduate from high school, whichever happens later. On June 2, Governor Greg Abbott has signed the bill into law.
On July 25, Texan Gov. Abbott posted on social media, “Any time a parent passes is tragic, but a death at the hands of a drunk driver is especially heinous.”
The new law came into effect on Friday, September 1 and payments will be made to a surviving parent or to a guardian. If required, payments can also be made to the Department of Family and Protective Services, when a child is placed in their care.
Payments will be determined by the court keeping in mind factors such as the financial needs of the child including educational, care and other needs and that of the surviving parent or guardian, if and when there is one as well as the defendant’s financial resources.
When a defendant is unable to pay child support if imprisoned, payments are expected to be made after the defendant gets released from prison.
The law also states that all “arrearages” have to be paid by the defendant even if the restitution payments were scheduled to end when a defendant had been “confined or imprisoned in the correctional facility.”
The law is also called Bentley’s Law and many states across the nation are looking to pass the same or a similar law. Tennessee became the first state to pass a similar law and 20 states across the nation are also considering such laws.
A Missouri woman began advocating the law after she lost her son, daughter-in-law and a grandchild after a drunk driving crash which killed them in 2021.
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