1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to fees and costs for certain mental health proceedings.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 574.031, Health and Safety Code, is

 1-5     amended by amending Subsection (h) and adding Subsections (j) and

 1-6     (k) to read as follows:

 1-7           (h)  A judge who holds a hearing under this section in

 1-8     hospitals or locations other than the county courthouse is entitled

 1-9     to be reimbursed for the judge's reasonable and necessary expenses

1-10     related to holding a hearing at that location. The judge shall

1-11     furnish the presiding judge of the statutory probate courts or the

1-12     presiding judge of the administrative region, as appropriate, an

1-13     accounting of the expenses for certification.  The presiding judge

1-14     shall provide a certification of expenses approved to the county

1-15     judge responsible for payment of costs under Section 571.018.  [The

1-16     expenses shall be collected as court costs.]

1-17           (j)  Notwithstanding other law, a judge who holds a hearing

1-18     under this section may assess for the judge's services a fee in an

1-19     amount not to exceed $50 as a court cost against the county

1-20     responsible for the payment of the costs of the hearing under

1-21     Section 571.018.

1-22           (k)  Notwithstanding other law, a judge who holds a hearing

1-23     under this section may assess for the services of a prosecuting

1-24     attorney a fee in an amount not to exceed $50 as a court cost

 2-1     against the county responsible for the payment of the costs of the

 2-2     hearing under Section 571.018.

 2-3           SECTION 2.  Section 571.018(c), Health and Safety Code, is

 2-4     amended to read as follows:

 2-5           (c)  Costs under this section include:

 2-6                 (1)  attorney's fees;

 2-7                 (2)  physician examination fees;

 2-8                 (3)  compensation for court-appointed personnel listed

 2-9     under Section 571.017;  [and]

2-10                 (4)  expenses of transportation to a department mental

2-11     health facility or to a federal agency;

2-12                 (5)  costs and salary supplements authorized under

2-13     Sections 574.031(i) and (j); and

2-14                 (6)  prosecutor's fees authorized under Section

2-15     574.031(k).

2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 591 was passed by the House on April

         3, 1997, by a non-record vote; and that the House concurred in

         Senate amendments to H.B. No. 591 on May 29, 1997, by a non-record

         vote.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 591 was passed by the Senate, with

         amendments, on May 27, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays

         0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor