H.B. No. 567
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to criminal law masters in Jefferson County.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 2.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 2.09.  Who Are Magistrates.  Each of the following
    1-7  officers is a magistrate within the meaning of this Code:  The
    1-8  justices of the Supreme Court, the judges of the Court of Criminal
    1-9  Appeals, the justices of the Courts of Appeals, the judges of the
   1-10  District Court, the magistrates appointed by the judges of the
   1-11  district courts of Bexar County, Dallas County, or Tarrant County
   1-12  that give preference to criminal cases, the magistrates appointed
   1-13  by the judges of the district courts of Lubbock County, <and> the
   1-14  magistrates appointed by the judges of the criminal district courts
   1-15  of Dallas County or Tarrant County, the masters appointed by the
   1-16  judges of the district courts and the county courts at law that
   1-17  give preference to criminal cases in Jefferson County, the county
   1-18  judges, the judges of the county courts at law, judges of the
   1-19  county criminal courts, the judges of statutory probate courts, the
   1-20  justices of the peace, the mayors and recorders and the judges of
   1-21  the municipal courts of incorporated cities or towns.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  Sections 54.202(a), (b), and (d), Government
   1-23  Code, are amended to read as follows:
   1-24        (a)  The judge of a court subject to this subchapter may
    2-1  appoint one or more masters <a master> to perform the duties
    2-2  authorized by this subchapter.
    2-3        (b)  To qualify for appointment as a master, a person must be
    2-4  licensed to practice law in Texas.  <A master must be:>
    2-5              <(1)  a magistrate, as that term is defined by Article
    2-6  2.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1965, of the county; and>
    2-7              <(2)  licensed to practice law in this state.>
    2-8        (d)  A person appointed to serve as master is entitled to be
    2-9  paid an amount set by the court that may not exceed the amount paid
   2-10  for indigent trial representation pursuant to Article 26.05, Code
   2-11  of Criminal Procedure.  The commissioners court shall pay the
   2-12  salary from funds appropriated by the commissioners court for
   2-13  indigent criminal representation.  <A magistrate who is appointed
   2-14  to serve as a master is not entitled to receive additional
   2-15  compensation for serving as a master.>
   2-16        SECTION 3.  Subchapter C, Chapter 54, Government Code, is
   2-17  amended by adding Section 54.207 to read as follows:
   2-18        Sec. 54.207.  RESTRICTION ON PRACTICE OF LAW.  A person
   2-19  appointed as a master under this subchapter may not practice law
   2-20  before the court for which the person served as master for two
   2-21  years after the date the master's services end.
   2-22        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-27  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-1  passage, and it is so enacted.