By Hartnett                                            H.B. No. 762
       74R3205 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the appointment of a court investigator in a
    1-3  guardianship matter.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Sections 25.0025(a) and (c), Government Code, are
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  The judge of a statutory probate court may employ <shall
    1-8  appoint> a court investigator.  One person shall serve as the court
    1-9  investigator for all statutory probate courts in the county unless
   1-10  the commissioners court has authorized additional investigators.
   1-11  The commissioners court may authorize additional court
   1-12  investigators if necessary.
   1-13        (c)  On the filing of an application for guardianship <and
   1-14  before the appointment of an attorney ad litem>, a judge of a
   1-15  statutory probate court may appoint the court investigator employed
   1-16  under Subsection (a) to <shall> investigate the circumstances
   1-17  alleged in the application to determine whether a less restrictive
   1-18  alternative than guardianship is appropriate.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and the
   1-20  change in law made by this Act applies only to an application for
   1-21  appointment of a guardian filed on or after that date.  An
   1-22  application for appointment of a guardian filed before the
   1-23  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the
   1-24  date the application was filed, and the former law is continued in
    2-1  effect for that purpose.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.