By Keffer                                       H.B. No. 2046

      75R5836 CAG-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the location of justice of the peace courts in certain

 1-3     counties.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 292.001, Local Government Code, is

 1-6     amended by amending Subsection (d) and adding Subsection (e) to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           (d)  Except as provided by Subsection (e), a [A] justice of

 1-9     the peace court may not be housed or conducted in a building

1-10     located outside the court's precinct except as provided by  Section

1-11     27.051(f), Government Code, or unless the justice of the peace

1-12     court is situated in the county courthouse in a county with a

1-13     population of at least 220,000 persons but no more than 230,000

1-14     persons.

1-15           (e)  All of the justice of the peace courts of a county with

1-16     a population of less than 30,000 shall be located in the county

1-17     courthouse or another facility provided by the commissioners court

1-18     if the commissioners court of the county by order finds that it is

1-19     in the best interests of the county for the courts to be located in

1-20     the same location.

1-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

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

 2-3     passage, and it is so enacted.