Amend HB 455 by striking everything below the enacting clause
and replacing it with the following:
      SECTION 1.  Sections 74.053, Government Code, are amended to
read as follows:
      (a)  When a judge is assigned under this chapter the
presiding judge shall, if <it is reasonable and> practicable <and
if time permits>, give notice of the assignment to each attorney
representing a party to the case that is to be heard in whole or
part by the assigned judge.
      (b)  If a party to a civil or criminal case files a timely
objection to the assignment, the judge shall not hear any part of
the case.  Except as provided by Subsection <(d)> (e), each party
to the case is <only> entitled to only one objection under this
section for that case.  This subsection applies in a criminal case
only if the criminal case is before a court in a county having a
population of more than 500,000.
      (c)  If notice is given at least twenty-four hours prior to
the hearing or trial, an objection under this section must be filed
before the first hearing or trial, including pretrial hearings,
over which the assigned judge is to preside.  If notice has not
been given, either party may orally or in writing object to the
assignment at the beginning of the first hearing or trial over
which the assigned judge is to preside.
      (d)  Allowing any judge to conduct any hearing does not waive
the right to object pursuant to this section, except that if a
hearing before an assigned judge results in an order, no objection
may be made to such judge's assignment by the presiding judge to
hear any motion to reconsider, revise, or amend that order.
      (e)  A former judge or justice who was not a retired judge
may not sit in a case if either party objects to the judge or
justice.
      SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and
applies only to the assignment of a judge or justice made on or
after the effective date of this Act.  An assignment made before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at
the time the assignment was made, and that law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
      SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby
suspended.