By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 651
       73R3472 SMH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the arbitration of certain disputes.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 224, Revised Statutes, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        Art. 224.  VALIDITY OF ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS.  A written
    1-7  agreement to submit any existing controversy to arbitration or a
    1-8  provision in a written contract to submit to arbitration any
    1-9  controversy thereafter arising between the parties is valid,
   1-10  enforceable and irrevocable, save upon such grounds as exist at law
   1-11  or in equity for the revocation of any contract.  A court shall
   1-12  refuse to enforce an agreement or contract provision to submit a
   1-13  controversy to arbitration if the court finds it was unconscionable
   1-14  at the time the agreement or contract was made.  Provided, however,
   1-15  that none of the provisions of this Act shall apply to:
   1-16              (a)  any collective bargaining agreement between an
   1-17  employer and a labor union; or
   1-18              (b)  any <contract for the acquisition by an individual
   1-19  person or persons (as distinguished from a corporation, trust,
   1-20  partnership, association, or other legal entity) of real or
   1-21  personal property, or services, or money or credit where the total
   1-22  consideration therefor to be paid or furnished by the individual is
   1-23  $50,000 or less, unless said individual and the other party or
   1-24  parties agree in writing to submit to arbitration and such written
    2-1  agreement is signed by the parties to such agreement and their
    2-2  attorneys;>
    2-3              <(c)  any claim for personal injury except upon the
    2-4  advice of counsel to both parties as evidenced by a written
    2-5  agreement signed by counsel to both parties.  A> claim for workers'
    2-6  compensation insurance benefits <shall not be submitted to
    2-7  arbitration under this Act>.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-9  applies only to contracts entered into and claims filed on or after
   2-10  that date.  Contracts entered into and claims filed before the
   2-11  effective date of this Act are covered by the law in effect
   2-12  immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
   2-13  continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-14        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.