HBA-KMH H.B. 2734 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2734 By: Cook Criminal Jurisprudence 3/31/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, only merchants or district and county attorneys are allowed to seek prosecution of persons who secure goods with a promissory note which contains insufficient funds (NSF). In an effort to control these losses and the bank charges incurred through the collection of NSF checks, many merchants use third party companies to verify checks and collect the outstanding debt. However, these third party companies are not allowed to seek prosecution of persons who write these NSF checks. H.B. 2734 modifies the Code of Criminal Procedure to allow third parties to seek assistance from prosecutors in the collection of bad checks. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Article 21.22, Code of Criminal Procedure, to create Subsection (a) from existing text and add Subsection (b), as follows: (b) Provides that a credible person for the purpose of an information charging an offense under Chapter 31 (Theft) or 32 (Fraud), Penal Code, involving a check or sight order authorized to be presented includes in addition to the holder of the check or sight order, the holder's assignee, agent, or representative or any other person retained by the holder to seek collection of the check or sight order. SECTION 2. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.