By:  Nixon                                    S.B. No. 129

         97S0064/1                            

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the appearance of an attorney in a court of this state.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 82.066, Government Code, is amended to

 1-4     read as follows:

 1-5           Sec. 82.066.  Attorney May Not Appear.  An attorney may not

 1-6     appear before a judge or justice in a civil or criminal case if the

 1-7     attorney is related to the judge or justice by affinity or

 1-8     consanguinity within the third [first] degree, as determined under

 1-9     Chapter 573.

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

1-11           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.