BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 1760 By: R. Lewis March 20, 1995 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Court budgets are suffering undue strain due to the current status of the law regarding the payment of jury fees. Defense attorneys can unintentionally add to the costs incurred by courts through the practice of plea bargaining. When a jury has been impaneled for trial and the defendant pleads to a lesser charge, the court is forced to absorb the cost. While the judicial process necessitates plea bargains, the courts should not be responsible for financing them. Deferred adjudication is another instance in which the courts are forced to incur costs for juries that are never utilized. The law only requires payment of jury fees upon conviction in a justice county, district court or county court at law. In civil court, jury trials are often requested for the sole purpose of delaying the process. When a litigant does not show up for a docket call, the court has still incurred the cost for impaneling the jury. It is this kind of abuse of the system that must be deterred so that courts are no longer subject to the financial strain that they now face. PURPOSE The purpose of this bill is to amend the law so that failure to appear in civil and criminal court, and failure to withdraw a request for jury trial more than 24 hours before the docket call in criminal court, carry a fee requirement upon completion of a case or conviction of a defendant. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS Section 1. Amends Chapter 45, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Article 45.251 to read that a justice or municipal court may order a party who demands a jury trial and fails to appear to pay the costs incurred for impaneling the jury. The justice or municipal court may release the party from the obligation to pay the costs if good cause is shown. An order under this section may be enforced by contempt. Section 2. Amends Article 102.004 (a), Code of Criminal Procedure, to state that a defendant who requests a jury trial, and does not withdraw the request earlier than 24 hours prior to the docket call, must remit a $3 payment for the costs incurred by impaneling of the jury if the defendant is convicted of the offense or final disposition of the defendant's case is deferred. Section 3. Amends Chapter 30, Civil Practices and Remedies Code, to state that (a) a party who fails to appear for a trial that it requested can be ordered to pay the costs for impaneling the jury; (b) the justice court may release a party from this obligation for good cause; (c) a party ordered to pay a fee as ordered by this section is subject to Section 21.002 (c), Government Code, as it relates to contempt. Section 4. Repeals Section 102.003, Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 5. Effective date, September 1, 1995. Section 6. (a) The change made to the law by Sections 2 and 4 of this Act applies only to a fee imposed on deferred disposition or on conviction for an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. A fee imposed on deferred dispostion or on conviction for an offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. (b) The changes made to the law by Section 1 and 3 of this Act apply only to justice or municipal court proceedings that commence after the effective date of this Act. Any proceedings that commence prior to September 1, 1995 will be governed by current law. Section 7. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The committee substitute contains the same language as the original bill and adds a section amending Chapter 45, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Article 45.251 to allow a justice or municipal court to order a party that demands a jury trial and fails to appear for the trial to pay for the costs for impaneling the jury. The justice or municipal court may release the party from paying the costs if good cause is shown. An order issued under this section may be enforced by contempt. The original bill stated that changes made in the law by Sections 1 and 3 apply only to fees imposed on conviction for an offense committed on or after the effective date of the Act. The committee substitute states that changes made in the law by Sections 2 and 4 (Sections 1 and 3 in the original bill) apply to fees imposed on deferred disposition and on convictions for an offense committed on or after the effective date of the Act. The original bill stated that the change made in the law by Section 2 apply only to a proceeding that is commenced in a justice court on or after the effective date of the Act. The committee substitute states that the change made in the law by Section 1 (the section added to the committee substitute) and Section 3 (Section 2 in the original bill) apply to proceedings commenced in a justice or municipal court on or after the effective date of the Act. SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION HB 1760 was considered by the Committee on County Affairs in public hearing on 3/15/95. Representative R. Lewis opened. Sandy Prindle, representing himself and The Justices of the Peace and Constables Association of Texas, testified for HB 1760. The Committee on County Affairs considered a complete committee substitute for HB 1760. The substitute was adopted without objection. Representative R. Lewis closed. HB 1760 was reported favorably, as substituted, with the recommendation that it do pass and be printed by the record vote of 8 ayes, 0 nays, 0 pnv, 1 absent.