By Hudson                                              H.B. No. 575
       74R2694 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a certification of willingness not to appear and plead
    1-3  as an attorney in court by certain retired and former judges.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 74.0551(b), Government Code, is amended
    1-6  to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  <A retired or former judge shall make an initial
    1-8  certification of willingness not to appear and plead not later than
    1-9  the 90th day after the date the person leaves active service.>  An
   1-10  initial certification of willingness not to appear and plead made
   1-11  before the judge leaves active service extends through December 31
   1-12  of the year following the year in which the judge leaves active
   1-13  service.  An initial certification made after the judge leaves
   1-14  active service extends through December 31 of the year following
   1-15  the year in which the certification is made.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  The changes in law made by this Act relating to a
   1-17  retired or former judge's initial certification of willingness not
   1-18  to appear and serve as an attorney in court apply to a judge
   1-19  regardless of whether the judge left active service before, on, or
   1-20  after the effective date of this Act.
   1-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-3  passage, and it is so enacted.