By Puente                                              H.B. No. 638
       74R1770 DAK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to arbitration agreements in certain contracts.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 224, Revised Statutes, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        Art. 224.  Validity of arbitration agreements.  A written
    1-7  agreement to submit any existing controversy to arbitration or a
    1-8  provision in a written contract to submit to arbitration any
    1-9  controversy thereafter arising between the parties is valid,
   1-10  enforceable and irrevocable, save upon such grounds as exist at law
   1-11  or in equity for the revocation of any contract.  A court shall
   1-12  refuse to enforce an agreement or contract provision to submit a
   1-13  controversy to arbitration if the court finds it was unconscionable
   1-14  at the time the agreement or contract was made.  Provided, however,
   1-15  that none of the provisions of this Act shall apply to:
   1-16              (a)  any collective bargaining agreement between an
   1-17  employer and a labor union;
   1-18              (b)  any contract for the acquisition by an individual
   1-19  person or persons (as distinguished from a corporation, trust,
   1-20  partnership, association, or other legal entity) of real or
   1-21  personal property, or services, or money or credit where the total
   1-22  consideration therefor to be paid or furnished by the individual is
   1-23  $200,000 <$50,000> or less, unless said individual and the other
   1-24  party or parties agree in writing to submit to arbitration and such
    2-1  written agreement is signed by the parties to such agreement and
    2-2  their attorneys;
    2-3              (c)  any claim for personal injury except upon the
    2-4  advice of counsel to both parties as evidenced by a written
    2-5  agreement signed by counsel to both parties.  A claim for workers'
    2-6  compensation shall not be submitted to arbitration under this Act.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-8  applies only to a contract entered into on or after that date.  A
    2-9  contract entered into before the effective date of this Act is
   2-10  governed by the law in effect at the time the contract was entered
   2-11  into, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.