A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to establish a pilot program evaluating the need to require persons desiring to marry one another to receive premarital counseling before the marriage is solemnized by a magistrate.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Judicial Department the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year to be allocated equally between First Things First of Gaston County and the Family Life Council in Guilford County to establish a pilot program in Gaston and Guilford Counties to evaluate whether persons desiring to marry one another should be required to receive premarital counseling before the marriage is solemnized by a magistrate in an effort to reduce the divorce rate in North Carolina. The pilot program shall evaluate the notice requirements needed to inform persons desiring to solemnize their marriage before a magistrate of the premarital counseling requirement. The Administrative Office of the Courts shall work in conjunction with First Things First of Gaston County and the Family Life Council in Guilford County to implement the pilot program by October 1, 2007. Magistrates in Gaston and Guilford Counties are encouraged to participate in the pilot program. The Administrative Office of the Courts shall report the findings and recommendations of the pilot program to the 2009 General Assembly.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.