By:  Montford                                         S.B. No. 1506
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the liability for civil damages which may result from a
    1-2  person's service as a volunteer, board member, or employee of a
    1-3  volunteer advocate charitable organization; allowing written
    1-4  reports by volunteers as evidence.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 11.101, Family Code, as amended by
    1-7  Chapter 452, Acts of the 70th Legislature, Regular Session, 1987,
    1-8  is amended by amending Subsection (c) and by adding Subsection (d)
    1-9  to read as follows:
   1-10        (c)  A <person> volunteer, board member, or employee of a
   1-11  volunteer advocate charitable organization is not  liable in civil
   1-12  damages for recommendations made or opinions rendered while serving
   1-13  or having served as a court-appointed volunteer, board member,
   1-14  employee, or member of an administrative review board under this
   1-15  section unless the act or failure to act is wilfully wrongful, done
   1-16  with conscious indifference or reckless disregard for the safety of
   1-17  other, done in bad faith or malice, or is grossly negligent.
   1-18        (d)  A written report prepared by a volunteer shall be
   1-19  ordered and obtained by the court.  The report shall contain only
   1-20  information relevant to the suit affecting the parent-child
   1-21  relationship in which the volunteer advocate has been appointed.
   1-22  The court or jury may consider the report if the volunteer advocate
   1-23  is present and available to testify, or if the deposition of the
    2-1  volunteer advocate has been taken according to the rules of
    2-2  discovery and all parties have had an opportunity to cross examine
    2-3  the volunteer advocate under oath.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-5  applies to a cause of action that accrues on or after that date.
    2-6  An action that violates a penal law of this state accrues on or
    2-7  after the effective date of this Act if every element of the
    2-8  violation occurs on or after that date.
    2-9        (b)  An action that accrues before the effective date of this
   2-10  Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the action
   2-11  accrued, and that law is continued in effect for this purpose.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.