H.B. No. 2028
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the conduct of masters appointed to preside over
    1-3  certain mental health hearings.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 574.025(c), Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  The hearing shall be held before a magistrate or, at the
    1-8  discretion of the presiding judge, before a master appointed by the
    1-9  presiding judge.  Notwithstanding any other law or requirement, a
   1-10  master appointed to conduct a hearing under this section may
   1-11  practice law in the court the master serves.  The master is
   1-12  entitled to reasonable compensation.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-19  passage, and it is so enacted.