S.B. No. 636
AN ACT
1-1 relating to a suit filed seeking to withhold information requested
1-2 under the open records law and to the parties to the suit.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subchapter H, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
1-5 amended by adding Sections 552.324 and 552.325 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 552.324. SUIT BY GOVERNMENTAL BODY. The only suit a
1-7 governmental body or officer for public records may file seeking to
1-8 withhold information from a person who has requested the
1-9 information for inspection or duplication under this chapter is a
1-10 suit that is filed in accordance with Sections 552.325 and 552.353
1-11 and that challenges a decision by the attorney general issued under
1-12 Subchapter G.
1-13 Sec. 552.325. PARTIES TO SUIT SEEKING TO WITHHOLD
1-14 INFORMATION. (a) A governmental body, officer for public records,
1-15 or other person or entity that files a suit seeking to withhold
1-16 information from a person who has requested the information for
1-17 inspection or duplication under this chapter may not file suit
1-18 against the person requesting the information. The person
1-19 requesting the information for inspection or duplication under this
1-20 chapter is entitled to intervene in the suit.
1-21 (b) The governmental body, officer for public records, or
1-22 other person or entity that files the suit shall demonstrate to the
1-23 court that the governmental body, officer for public records, or
1-24 other person or entity made a timely good faith effort to inform
2-1 the person requesting the information for inspection or duplication
2-2 under this chapter, by certified mail or by another written method
2-3 of notice that requires the return of a receipt, of:
2-4 (1) the existence of the suit, including the subject
2-5 matter and cause number of the suit and the court in which the suit
2-6 is filed;
2-7 (2) the person's right to intervene in the suit or to
2-8 choose not to participate in the suit;
2-9 (3) the fact that the suit is against the attorney
2-10 general; and
2-11 (4) the address and phone number of the office of the
2-12 attorney general.
2-13 (c) If the attorney general enters into a proposed
2-14 settlement that all or part of the information that is the subject
2-15 of the suit should be withheld, the attorney general shall notify
2-16 the person requesting the information for inspection or duplication
2-17 under this chapter of that decision and, if the person has not
2-18 intervened in the suit, of the person's right to intervene to
2-19 contest the withholding. The attorney general shall notify the
2-20 person:
2-21 (1) in the manner required by the Texas Rules of Civil
2-22 Procedure, if the person has intervened in the suit; or
2-23 (2) by certified mail or by another written method of
2-24 notice that requires the return of a receipt, if the person has not
2-25 intervened in the suit.
2-26 (d) The court shall allow the person a reasonable period to
2-27 intervene after the attorney general attempts to give notice under
3-1 Subsection (c)(2).
3-2 SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
3-3 a suit filed under Chapter 552, Government Code, on or after the
3-4 effective date of this Act.
3-5 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-10 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-11 passage, and it is so enacted.