By:  Truan                                            S.B. No. 1277
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to increased civil penalties for deceptive and fraudulent
    1-2  practices against elderly consumers.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Article 17.47, Business &
    1-5  Commerce Code, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (c)  In addition to the request for a temporary restraining
    1-7  order, or permanent injunction in a proceeding brought under
    1-8  Subsection (a) of this section, the consumer protection division
    1-9  may request a civil penalty of not more than $2,000 per violation,
   1-10  not to exceed a total of $10,000, to be paid to the state;
   1-11  provided, however, that if the proceeding brought under Subsection
   1-12  (a) of this section pertains to an action brought by a person who
   1-13  is 60 years or older, the civil penalties authorized under this
   1-14  subsection may not be more than $10,000 per violation, not to
   1-15  exceed a total of $100,000, to be paid to the state.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  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,
   1-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-22  passage, and it is so enacted.