BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 660

By: Cook

Juvenile Justice & Family Issues

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

During the interim, the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee heard testimony regarding the need to update Family Code provisions to help protect subjects of certain protective orders. C.S.H.B. 660 seeks to set out certain requirements for a law enforcement agency regarding entering protective order information into the agency's computer records and into the statewide law enforcement information system. The bill also provides for the enforcement of temporary ex parte orders and for the notification to applicable recipients of a change of address or telephone number of a person protected by a protective order.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 660 amends the Family Code to require a law enforcement agency receiving a protective order to enter that order in the agency's computer records of outstanding warrants as notice that the order has been issued and is currently in effect. This requirement replaces the provision that makes such entry voluntary. The bill, with respect to the deadline by which a law enforcement agency must enter certain information relating to a protective order into the statewide law enforcement information system, changes that deadline from not later than the third business day after the date the order or information is received to not later than the next business day after that date. These provisions apply only to information regarding a protective order received by a law enforcement agency on or after the bill's effective date.

C.S.H.B. 660 requires a court clerk, when a person protected by a protective order files a notification of change of address or telephone number with the court, to deliver a copy of that notification to any applicable recipient entitled to a copy of the order, in addition to the respondent. This provision applies only to a notification of change of address or telephone number filed on or after the bill's effective date.

C.S.H.B. 660 establishes that a temporary ex parte order is enforceable to the same extent and in the same manner as a final protective order, regardless of whether the temporary ex parte order was rendered before, on, or after the bill's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 660 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute includes provisions that were absent from the introduced that provide for the following:

· the enforcement of temporary ex parte order, rendered before, on, or after the bill's effective date, to the same extent as a final protective order; and

· a requirement for a court clerk to deliver a copy of a notification of a change of address or telephone number relating to a protective order to applicable recipients and the applicability of the requirement.