1-1  By:  Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Henderson)            H.B. No. 2028
    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 conduct of masters appointed to preside over
    1-9  certain mental health hearings.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 574.025(c), Health and Safety Code, is
   1-12  amended to read as follows:
   1-13        (c)  The hearing shall be held before a magistrate or, at the
   1-14  discretion of the presiding judge, before a master appointed by the
   1-15  presiding judge.  Notwithstanding any other law or requirement, a
   1-16  master appointed to conduct a hearing under this section may
   1-17  practice law in the court the master serves.  The master is
   1-18  entitled to reasonable compensation.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-25  passage, and it is so enacted.
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