HB 400 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Bentley's Law.

HB 400, "Bentley's Law," requires defendants convicted of certain felony death-by-vehicle offenses (specifically violations of G.S. 20-141.4 subsections (a1), (a5), or (a6)) to pay child support as restitution to the minor children of the deceased victim. The court must order payments until each child turns 18 and graduates high school, considering the child’s needs, living standards, and custody arrangements. Payments are made to the clerk of court for distribution to the surviving parent or guardian within 10 days, with enforcement treated as a civil judgment. This law directly affects children of victims in these specific vehicular homicide cases and mandates financial support through the criminal sentencing process.
Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Mar 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Mar 13, 2025 Last action Mar 19, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Filed Edition 1 · 4 edits
MODERATE
The bill text was reformatted and updated with new sponsor information and a revised bill number, but the substantive policy content regarding child support restitution for felony death victims remains unchanged. The primary difference is the addition of a second sponsor (Representative Campbell) and the update of the bill reference number from DRH40249-ML-123 to H400-v-1.
TECHNICAL

Added Representative Campbell as a co-sponsor alongside Representative Clampitt, with a note directing readers to the General Assembly website for a complete sponsor list.

Updated the bill reference number from DRH40249-ML-123 to H400-v-1 to reflect the new edition status.

Changed the bill title page layout and formatting, including session date and page numbering conventions.

Added 'Referred to: Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House' with a specific date of March 17, 2025, which was not present in the filed version.

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
5
Key actions
0
Committee
2
Mar 19, 2025
Committee
Re-ref to the Com on Judiciary 2, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
lower
Mar 17, 2025
Committee
Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
lower
Mar 13, 2025
Introduced
Filed
lower
1 primary · 7 co-sponsors

Sponsors