By De La Garza                                        H.B. No. 1994
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the requirement of pro bono legal services by certain
    1-3  attorneys.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 21, Government Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Section 21.010 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 21.010.  RESTRICTIONS ON APPOINTMENT OF COUNSEL.  (a)
    1-8  In this section, "pro bono legal services" means legal services
    1-9  provided without compensation to an indigent person by an attorney.
   1-10        (b)  A court may not appoint an attorney to serve as attorney
   1-11  ad litem in any case unless the attorney supplies proof to the
   1-12  judge that the attorney has:
   1-13              (1)  performed at least 50 hours of pro bono legal
   1-14  services in the preceding year; or
   1-15              (2)  provided legal services as appointed counsel in
   1-16  the preceding year to at least three indigent criminal defendants;
   1-17              (3)  filed written notice with the district clerk
   1-18  stating that the attorney is available for representation of
   1-19  indigent criminal defendants; and
   1-20              (4)  on or before January 1, filed a sworn affidavit
   1-21  with the district clerk affirming the attorney's compliance with
   1-22  Subsections (1) and (2) for the preceding calendar year.
   1-23        (c)  This section does not apply in a county in which a
    2-1  public defender's office represents indigent criminal defendants.
    2-2        (d)  The presiding Judge of a District or County Court shall
    2-3  appoint attorneys to act as attorney ad litem from a list provided
    2-4  by the District Clerk and shall do so in alphabetical order only.
    2-5        (e)  A person who has knowledge of a violation of this
    2-6  section by an attorney shall notify the State Bar of Texas not
    2-7  later than the 30th day after the date the person knows of the
    2-8  violation.
    2-9        (f)  An attorney ad litem who was eligible under this section
   2-10  at the time of assignment but who later becomes ineligible under
   2-11  this section may continue to serve as an attorney ad litem for
   2-12  assignments made while eligible.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  Notwithstanding Section 21.010, Government Code,
   2-14  as added by this Act, to be appointed to serve as an attorney ad
   2-15  litem as provided by that section during 1996, an attorney must
   2-16  have filed the notice required by Section 21.010(b)(3), Government
   2-17  Code, not later than September 1, 1995.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-24  passage, and it is so enacted.