By:  Puente                                            H.B. No. 410
       73R175 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to certain automobile insurers' consideration of a driving
    1-3  record more than three years old.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Insurance Code,  is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 21.21-6 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 21.21-6.  DISCRIMINATION BASED ON DRIVING RECORD.  (a)
    1-8  An insurer providing motor vehicle insurance may consider only the
    1-9  most recent 36-month period of an applicant's driving record.  An
   1-10  insurer may not refuse to issue, refuse to renew, or cancel a motor
   1-11  vehicle insurance policy because of an applicant's or an insured's
   1-12  driving record beyond the most recent 36-month period before the
   1-13  effective date of issuance or renewal of the policy.
   1-14        (b)  The State Board of Insurance may adopt rules necessary
   1-15  to implement this article.
   1-16        (c)  In this article:
   1-17              (1)  "Driving record" means an applicant's or insured's
   1-18  history of traffic law convictions or accidents:
   1-19                    (A)  in which a report form is required to be
   1-20  filed under Section 4, Texas Motor Vehicle Safety-Responsibility
   1-21  Act (Article 6701h, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), or Section 44,
   1-22  Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (Article 6701d, Vernon's
   1-23  Texas Civil Statutes);
   1-24                    (B)  that resulted in a judgment of fault
    2-1  rendered by a court against the applicant or insured; or
    2-2                    (C)  in which the applicant, insured, or a person
    2-3  acting on behalf of that individual assumed liability for damage to
    2-4  property other than the applicant's or insured's vehicle.
    2-5              (2)  "Insurer" means an insurance company, corporation,
    2-6  interinsurance exchange, mutual, reciprocal, association, Lloyd's,
    2-7  or other insurer writing any form of motor vehicle insurance in
    2-8  this state.
    2-9              (3)  "Motor vehicle insurance" means any insurance
   2-10  policy delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in this state
   2-11  providing coverage for injury arising out of the ownership,
   2-12  operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-14  applies to the denial, refusal to renew, or cancellation of an
   2-15  insurance policy on or after January 1, 1994.  A policy that is
   2-16  denied, refused renewal, or canceled before January 1, 1994, is
   2-17  governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective
   2-18  date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that
   2-19  purpose.
   2-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-22  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.