BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 1195 By: Naishtat (Henderson) Jurisprudence 5-25-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Guardianships are created to protect the best interests of an incapacitated person. The 73rd Legislature amended the guardianship laws to establish a presumption that appointing persons having certain types of criminal convictions would not be in the best interest of a ward, thereby disallowing persons with these convictions from serving as guardians. The provision essentially created a presumption that a person convicted of any sexual offense, sexual assault, aggravated assault, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child, or incest, would not operate in the best interest of a ward. However, the presumption did not apply to persons convicted of assaulting elderly or disabled persons. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 1195 to expand the presumption concerning the best interest of a ward to preclude the appointment of a person who has been convicted of injury to an elderly or disabled individual as guardian. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 678, Probate Code, to provide that it is presumed not to be in the best interests of a ward to appoint a person as guardian of the ward if the person has been finally convicted of injury to an elderly individual or to a disabled individual. SECTION 2. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.