By:  Harris                                  S.B. No. 1614

         97S0849/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to certain unauthorized practice of law.

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

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 83.001, Government Code,

 1-4     is amended to read as follows:

 1-5           (a)  A person, partnership, corporation, or other entity,

 1-6     other than a person described in Subsection (b), may not charge or

 1-7     receive, either directly or indirectly, any compensation for all or

 1-8     any part of the preparation of a legal instrument affecting title

 1-9     to real property, including a deed, deed of trust, note, mortgage,

1-10     and transfer or release of lien.  As used in this section,

1-11     "compensation" includes but is not limited to interest and any

1-12     other cost, fee, or charge made in connection with a loan secured

1-13     by a lien on real property.

1-14           SECTION 2.  Section 83.002, Government Code, is amended to

1-15     read as follows:

1-16           Sec. 83.002.  EXPENSES.  This chapter does not prevent an

1-17     attorney from paying secretarial, paralegal, or other ordinary and

1-18     reasonable expenses necessarily and actually incurred by the

1-19     attorney for the preparation of legal instruments.  However, no

1-20     such payments shall be made by an attorney directly or indirectly

1-21     to a party to the transaction for which the legal documents are

1-22     prepared.

1-23           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-1           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

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

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.