By Dutton                                        H.B. No. 696

      75R3799 MLS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to court reporting firms.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.   Section 52.021(b), Government Code, is amended

 1-5     to read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  A person may not engage in shorthand reporting in this

 1-7     state unless the person is an official court reporter or is:

 1-8                 (1)  certified as a shorthand reporter by the supreme

 1-9     court; and

1-10                 (2)  an independent contractor for or employed by a

1-11     court reporting firm in which a person certified as a shorthand

1-12     reporter by the supreme court is a partner, shareholder, or owner

1-13     with an ownership interest of at least 51 percent of the firm.

1-14           SECTION 2.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-15           SECTION 3.   The importance of this legislation and the

1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.