The Joint Judiciary Committee approved Senate File 7, a package of amendments intended to harmonize Wyoming’s protection-order statutes across Title 7 (stalking and assault) and Title 35 (domestic violence), revise service and venue rules and clarify certain clerk and sheriff responsibilities.

Alisa Butler, state court administrator, said the draft was designed to make language consistent between the two titles and to solve recurring process problems for court clerks and judges. Changes discussed included expanding venue to allow a petitioner to file where an act occurred or where the petitioner is found, clarifying when the clerk must forward orders to sheriffs, and specifying how extensions, modifications and terminations are served.

Advocates told the committee they supported efficiency improvements but opposed an amendment that would have expanded the time to set a hearing for a protection-order petition from the current 72 hours to 10 days. Yvonne Swanson of the Advocacy and Resource Center in Sheridan County said a longer hearing delay — particularly when no ex parte order is issued — would leave victims and their children at greater risk and could impose large emergency costs on victim-assistance agencies. "By increasing that time frame ... is almost as if we're telling the victims ... their emotional and physical safety has dropped from the top of our priority list," Swanson said.

After debate, the committee rejected the 72-hour-to-10-day change and made a series of conforming and procedural amendments: it narrowed the court’s authority to appoint an attorney for a petitioner (the committee limited automatic appointment language to petitioners under age 21, after discussion), clarified service by mail and added a conforming requirement that renewal, modification and termination notices be mailed to the last known address with both first-class and certified mail as acceptable for service in some provisions. Committee members also instructed staff to make conforming edits across mirrored provisions in the two statute titles.

The committee adopted the package and advanced the bill to the floor by roll call (five ayes). Committee members said the changes aim to reduce clerk confusion and improve notice to law enforcement while preserving protections for victims; advocates asked legislators to guard timelines for emergency relief.