By Lewis of Tarrant                              H.B. No. 455

      75R3680 MWV-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to objection to a visiting judge.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 74.053(b), Government Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  If a party to a civil or criminal case files a timely

 1-7     objection to the assignment, the judge shall not hear the case.

 1-8     Except as provided by Subsection (d), each party to the case is

 1-9     only entitled to one objection under this section for that case.

1-10           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-11     applies only to the assignment of a judge or justice made on or

1-12     after the effective date of this Act.  An assignment made before

1-13     the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at

1-14     the time the assignment was made, and that law is continued in

1-15     effect for that purpose.

1-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.