SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2613

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 15, 2025

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2613.

      This bill clarifies that the “Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 1991,” P.L.1991, c.261 (C.2C:25-17 et al.), covers various forms of physical and non-physical elder abuse in domestic settings.  Although the existing findings and declarations to the act reference the Legislature’s intention of addressing elder abuse (and abuse against disabled persons) “on an equal basis as violence against spouses and children,” the bill updates the findings and declarations to expressly reference elder abuse by current or former household members in its many possible forms; that is, all such “emotional, psychological, and physical [domestic] violence” against the elderly.  It also updates the existing definition of “victim of domestic violence” under the act, which currently covers “any person who is 18 years of age or older,” to expressly include a reference to an elderly person in a domestic setting, who is not otherwise protected pursuant to P.L.1977, c.239 (C.52:27G-1 et seq.) as an institutionalized elderly person in a public or private facility or institution.