GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

EXTRA SESSION 1994

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 174

Short Title:  Restrict Victims Comp.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives Decker; Mitchell and Sexton.
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Referred to:  Judiciary II.
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February 14, 1994

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT A PERSON COMMITTING A CRIME WHILE INJURED IS NOT A VICTIM UNDER THE CRIME VICTIMS COMPENSATION ACT.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 15B-2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 15B-2. Definitions.
As used in this Chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
(1)	'Allowable expense' means reasonable charges incurred for reasonably needed products, services, and accommodations, including those for medical care, rehabilitation, medically related property, and other remedial treatment and care.
		Allowable expense includes a total charge not in excess of two thousand dollars ($2,000) for expenses related to funeral, cremation, and burial, including transportation of a body, but excluding expenses for flowers, gravestone, and other items not directly related to the funeral service.
(2) 	'Claimant' means any of the following persons who claims an award of compensation under this Chapter:
a.	A victim;
b. 	A dependent of a deceased victim;
c.	A third person who is not a collateral source and who provided benefit to the victim or his family other than in the course or scope of his employment, business, or profession;
d.	A person who is authorized to act on behalf of a victim, a dependent, or a third person described in subdivision c.
	The claimant, however, may not be the offender or an accomplice of the offender who committed the criminally injurious conduct.
(3)	'Collateral source' means a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss otherwise compensable that the victim or claimant has received or that is readily available to him from any of the following sources:
a.	The offender;
b.	The government of the United States or any of its agencies, a state or any of its political subdivisions, or an instrumentality of two or more states;
c.	Social security, medicare, and medicaid;
d.	State-required, temporary, nonoccupational disability insurance;
e.	Worker's compensation;
f.	Wage continuation programs of any employer;
g.	Proceeds of a contract of insurance payable to the victim for loss that he sustained because of the criminally injurious conduct;
h.	A contract providing prepaid hospital and other health care services, or benefits for disability.
(4)	'Commission' means the Crime Victims Compensation Commission established by G.S. 15B-3.
(5)	'Criminally injurious conduct' means conduct which by its nature poses a substantial threat of personal injury or death, and is punishable by fine or imprisonment or death, or would be so punishable but for the fact that the person engaging in the conduct lacked the capacity to commit the crime under the laws of this State. Criminally injurious conduct includes conduct which amounts to an offense involving impaired driving as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(24a) but does not include conduct arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle when the conduct is punishable only as a violation of other provisions of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes.
(6)	'Dependent' means an individual wholly or substantially dependent upon the victim for care and support and includes a child of the victim born after his death.
(7)	'Dependent's economic loss' means loss after a victim's death of contributions of things of economic value to his dependents, not including services they would have received from the victim if he had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependents avoided by reason of the victim's death.
(8)	'Dependent's replacement service loss' means loss reasonably incurred by dependents after a victim's death in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the victim would have performed for their benefit if he had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependents avoided by reason of the victim's death and not subtracted in calculating dependent's economic loss.
   Dependent's replacement service loss will be limited to a 26-week period commencing from the date of the injury and compensation shall not exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00) per week.
(9)	'Director' means the Director of the Commission appointed under G.S. 15B-3(g).
(10)	'Economic loss' means economic detriment consisting only of allowable expense, work loss, and replacement services loss. If criminally injurious conduct causes death, economic loss includes a dependent's economic loss and a dependent's replacement service loss. Noneconomic detriment is not economic loss, but economic loss may be caused by pain and suffering or physical impairment.
(11)	'Noneconomic detriment' means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, or other nonpecuniary damage.
(12)	'Replacement services loss' means expenses reasonably incurred in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the injured person would have performed, not for income but for the benefit of himself or his family, if he had not been injured.
		Replacement service loss will be limited to a 26-week period commencing from the date of the injury, and compensation may not exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00) per week.
(12a)	'Substantial evidence' means relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.
(13)	'Victim' means a person who suffers personal injury or death proximately caused by criminally injurious conduct.  The victim, however, may not be a person who was committing a crime when the person's injury or death occurred.
(14)	'Work loss' means loss of income from work that the injured person would have performed if he had not been injured and expenses reasonably incurred by him to obtain services in lieu of those he would have performed for income, reduced by any income from substitute work actually performed by him, or by income he would have earned in available appropriate substitute work that he was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake.
		Compensation for work loss will be limited to 26 weeks commencing from the date of the injury, and compensation may not exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00) per week.  A claim for work loss will be paid only upon proof that the injured person was gainfully employed at the time of the criminally injurious conduct and, by physician's certificate, that the injured person was unable to work."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 15B-11(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	An award of compensation shall be denied if:
(1)	The claimant fails to file his application for an award within one year after the date of the criminally injurious conduct that caused the injury or death for which he seeks the award;
(2)	The economic loss is incurred after one year from the date of the criminally injurious conduct that caused the injury or death for which the victim seeks the award, except in the case where the victim for whom compensation is sought was 10 years old or younger at the time the injury occurred.  In that case an award of compensation will be denied if the economic loss is incurred after two years from the date of the criminally injurious conduct that caused the injury or death for which the victim seeks the award;
(3)	The criminally injurious conduct was not reported to a law enforcement officer or agency within 72 hours of its occurrence, and there was no good cause for the delay;
(4)	The award would benefit the offender or the offender's accomplice; or
(5)	The criminally injurious conduct occurred while the victim was confined in any State, county, or city prison, correctional, youth services, or juvenile facility, or local confinement facility, or half-way house, group home, or similar facility."
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1994, and applies to conduct occurring on or after that date.