By Solomons, et al.                                   H.B. No. 1878
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1878:
          By Tillery                                        C.S.H.B. No. 1878
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the collection of fee for jury trial.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 51.064, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 51.064.  JURY FEE <IN CERTAIN COUNTIES.  (a)  This
    1-7  section applies only to counties with a population of two million
    1-8  or more.>
    1-9        (a) <(b)>  The district clerk shall collect a $20 jury fee
   1-10  for each civil case in district court in which a person applies for
   1-11  a jury trial.  The clerk of a county court or statutory county
   1-12  court shall collect a $17 jury fee for each civil case in those
   1-13  courts in which a person applies for a jury trial.  The clerk shall
   1-14  note the payment of the fee on the court's docket sheet.
   1-15        (b) <(c)>  The fee required by this section must be paid by
   1-16  the person applying for a jury trial no later than the 10th day
   1-17  before the jury trial is scheduled to begin.
   1-18        (c) <(d)>  The fee required by this section is in addition to
   1-19  the jury fee required by Rule 216, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure,
   1-20  and any other fee allowed by law or rule.
   1-21        (d)  This section does not apply to a party that has filed an
   1-22  affidavit of inability to pay under Rule 145, Texas Rules of Civil
   1-23  Procedure.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-1  applies only to an action that is commenced on or after that date.
    2-2  An action that is commenced before the effective date of this Act
    2-3  is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the
    2-4  effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for
    2-5  that purpose.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.