By Hilbert                                      H.B. No. 2419

      75R8488 MLS-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the attorney-client privilege.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 81, Government Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 81.115 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 81.115.  ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE; DEFINITION OF

 1-7     REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CLIENT.  (a)  For purposes of the

 1-8     attorney-client privilege, "representative of the client" means:

 1-9                 (1)  a person who has the authority to:

1-10                       (A)  obtain legal services or advice for the

1-11     client; or

1-12                       (B)  act on the legal advice rendered to the

1-13     client; or

1-14                 (2)  a person who in the course and scope of the

1-15     person's employment with the client enters into a confidential

1-16     communication with an attorney in connection with obtaining legal

1-17     advice for the client.

1-18           (b)  This section prevails to the extent of any conflict

1-19     between this section and the Texas Rules of Civil Evidence or the

1-20     Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence.

1-21           (c)  Notwithstanding Section 22.004, this section may not be

1-22     modified or repealed by a rule adopted by the supreme court.

1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to the assertion of the

1-24     attorney-client privilege to protect disclosure of a communication

 2-1     on or after the effective date of this Act without regard to

 2-2     whether the communication was made before, on, or after that date.

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

 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-8     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-9     passage, and it is so enacted.