73R3632 MLR-D
          By Bomer                                               H.B. No. 674
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of a court to refer a case to alternative
    1-3  dispute resolution.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 154.021, Civil Practice and Remedies
    1-6  Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 154.021.  Referral of Pending Disputes for Alternative
    1-8  Dispute Resolution Procedure.  (a)  Except as limited by Subsection
    1-9  (c), a <A> court may, on its own motion or the motion of a party,
   1-10  refer a pending dispute for resolution by an alternative dispute
   1-11  resolution procedure including:
   1-12              (1)  an alternative dispute resolution system
   1-13  established under Chapter 152 <26, Acts of the 68th Legislature,
   1-14  Regular Session, 1983 (Article 2372aa, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-15  Statutes)>;
   1-16              (2)  a dispute resolution organization; or
   1-17              (3)  a nonjudicial and informally conducted forum for
   1-18  the voluntary settlement of citizens' disputes through the
   1-19  intervention of an impartial third party, including those
   1-20  alternative dispute resolution procedures described under this
   1-21  subchapter.
   1-22        (b)  The court shall confer with the parties in the
   1-23  determination of the most appropriate alternative dispute
   1-24  resolution procedure.
    2-1        (c)  The court may not refer a dispute for alternative
    2-2  dispute resolution if any of the following motions are pending
    2-3  before the court in that dispute:
    2-4              (1)  a motion to transfer venue; or
    2-5              (2)  a motion for special appearance.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-7  applies only to disputes referred under Section 154.021(a), Civil
    2-8  Practice and Remedies Code, on or after that date.  A dispute
    2-9  referred under that section before September 1, 1993, is governed
   2-10  by the law as it existed on the date the dispute was referred, and
   2-11  that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.