By:  Schechter                                         H.B. No. 547
       73R305 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to adjudication hearings in juvenile court.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 54.03(b), Family Code, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        (b)  At the beginning of the adjudication hearing, the
    1-7  juvenile court judge shall explain to the child and his parent,
    1-8  guardian, or guardian ad litem:
    1-9              (1)  the allegations made against the child;
   1-10              (2)  the nature and possible consequences of the
   1-11  proceedings, including the law relating to the admissibility of the
   1-12  record of a juvenile court adjudication in a criminal proceeding
   1-13  and, as applicable, the law relating to the suspension of driving
   1-14  privileges and the law requiring registration under the sexual
   1-15  offender registration program provided by Article 6252-13c.1,
   1-16  Revised Statutes;
   1-17              (3)  the child's privilege against self-incrimination;
   1-18              (4)  the child's right to trial and to confrontation of
   1-19  witnesses;
   1-20              (5)  the child's right to representation by an attorney
   1-21  if he is not already represented; and
   1-22              (6)  the child's right to trial by jury.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-24  applies only to an adjudication hearing begun on or after that
    2-1  date.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.