73R6132 JBN-F
          By Goodman                                            H.B. No. 1519
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to volunteer advocates in a suit for a protective order
    1-3  under Chapter 71, Family Code.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 71, Family Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 71.095 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 71.095.  VOLUNTEER ADVOCATES.  (a)  In a suit under this
    1-8  chapter, the court may appoint as a volunteer advocate on behalf of
    1-9  the applicant for a protective order a person who has been
   1-10  certified by the court to appear at a court hearing in the capacity
   1-11  of a volunteer advocate.
   1-12        (b)  A court may establish minimum training standards for
   1-13  persons who apply to the court to be a volunteer advocate under
   1-14  this chapter.  The court may certify as a volunteer advocate a
   1-15  person who meets the court's minimum training standards.
   1-16        (c)  A person is not liable for damages arising from a
   1-17  recommendation made or an opinion given in the service as a
   1-18  volunteer advocate appointed under Subsection (a) of this section,
   1-19  except for an act or a failure to act that is intentionally
   1-20  malicious or grossly negligent.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.