1-1  By:  Finnell (Senate Sponsor - Brown)                 H.B. No. 1294
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 3, 1995;
    1-3  April 4, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Jurisprudence; April 26, 1995, reported favorably by the following
    1-5  vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; April 26, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the duties of a clerk of a justice court.
    1-9        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-10        SECTION 1.  Section  27.056, Government Code, is amended to
   1-11  read as follows:
   1-12        Sec. 27.056.  CLERK.  (a)  Each justice of the peace may
   1-13  designate one or more persons to serve as clerk of the justice
   1-14  court.
   1-15        (b)  The clerk may administer oaths and affidavits and make
   1-16  certificates and affix the court's seal to those certificates.
   1-17        (c)  The clerk shall:
   1-18              (1)  maintain central docket records for all cases
   1-19  filed in the justice court;
   1-20              (2)  maintain an index of all court judgments for cases
   1-21  arising in the justice court; and
   1-22              (3)  <A clerk shall> perform the other duties required
   1-23  by law and <shall> assist the judge in handling matters before the
   1-24  court.
   1-25        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-26        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-27  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-28  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-29  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-30  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-31                               * * * * *