By Munoz                                                H.B. No. 81
       74R299 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the private practice of law by a judge of a statutory
    1-3  county court of Hidalgo County.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 25.1102(l), Government Code, is amended
    1-6  to read as follows:
    1-7        (l)  A judge of a county court at law may <not> engage in the
    1-8  private practice of law, except that a judge of a statutory county
    1-9  court in Hidalgo County and any attorney of a law firm or other
   1-10  organization of attorneys in which the judge is a staff attorney,
   1-11  associate, partner, shareholder, member, of counsel, employee, or
   1-12  consultant, or holds a similar position, may not practice law in a
   1-13  statutory county court in Hidalgo County.  This subsection expires
   1-14  January 1, 2005.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  Effective January 1, 2005, Section 25.1102,
   1-16  Government Code, is amended by adding Subsection (m) to read as
   1-17  follows:
   1-18        (m)  A judge of a county court at law may not engage in the
   1-19  private practice of law.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.