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Senate Bill 1630 |
Senate Author: West |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
House Sponsor: Lewis |
Previous law prohibited a vexatious litigant subject to a prefiling order from filing a new litigation in a court in Texas without the permission of the local administrative judge of the court in which the person intends to file the litigation. Senate Bill 1630 amends the Civil Practice and Remedies Code to instead prohibit a vexatious litigant subject to a prefiling order from filing, pro se, new litigation in a court to which the order applies without seeking the permission of the local administrative judge of the type of court in which the vexatious litigant intends to file or the local administrative district judge of the county in which the vexatious litigant intends to file if the litigant intends to file in a justice or constitutional county court. A litigant who files a request seeking such permission must provide a copy of the request to all defendants named in the proposed litigation, and the appropriate local administrative judge may make a determination on the request with or without a hearing. The bill establishes that a prefiling order entered by a justice or constitutional county court applies only to the court that entered the order and a prefiling order entered by a district or statutory county court applies to each court in Texas. The bill also revises provisions establishing procedures for a circumstance in which a court clerk mistakenly files litigation presented, pro se, by a vexatious litigant subject to a prefiling order and prohibits the appeal of an order dismissing litigation that was mistakenly filed by a clerk.
Senate Bill 1630 also establishes that provisions governing vexatious litigants do not apply to a municipal court or to an attorney licensed in Texas unless the attorney proceeds pro se. Finally, the bill prohibits the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System from removing the name of a vexatious litigant subject to a prefiling order from the agency's Internet website unless the office receives a written order from the court that entered the prefiling order or from an appellate court.