1-1     By:  Ratliff                                           S.B. No. 299

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 24, 1997; January 28, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;

 1-4     March 19, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,

 1-5     Nays 0; March 19, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the date for a hearing on an application for a

 1-9     protective order.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (d), Section 71.09, Family Code, is

1-12     amended to read as follows:

1-13           (d)  A prosecuting attorney in a county with a population of

1-14     more than 1.5 million or in a county in a judicial district that is

1-15     composed of more than one county may request that a hearing under

1-16     Subsection (a) [of this section] take place not later than 20 days

1-17     after the date the application is filed or that a hearing

1-18     rescheduled under Subsection (c) [of this section] take place not

1-19     later than 20 days after the date on which the request is made.

1-20     The prosecuting attorney may make a request under this subsection

1-21     on a case-by-case basis or to all the courts in the county for all

1-22     cases under this chapter.  A court shall grant the request of a

1-23     prosecuting attorney under this subsection.

1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-25     applies to an application for a protective order made on or after

1-26     that date.  An application for a protective order made before the

1-27     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the

1-28     date the application was made, and the former law is continued in

1-29     effect for that purpose.

1-30           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-31     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-32     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-33     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-34     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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