By:  Dutton                                           H.B. No. 1724
       73R6386 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the taking of depositions.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 20.001(a), Civil Practice and Remedies
    1-5  Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  A deposition on written questions of a witness who is
    1-7  alleged to reside or to be in this state may be taken by:
    1-8              (1)  a clerk of a district court;
    1-9              (2)  a judge or clerk of a county court; or
   1-10              (3)  a notary public of this state.
   1-11        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-12  applies only to depositions taken on or after that date.  A
   1-13  deposition taken before September 1, 1993, is governed by the law
   1-14  in effect when the deposition was taken, and that law is continued
   1-15  in effect for that purpose.
   1-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.