By Chisum H.B. No. 169
Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to a waiting period required for the divorce of certain
1-3 persons on the grounds of insupportability.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 6.702, Family Code, is amended by
1-6 amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (c) to read as
1-7 follows:
1-8 (a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), the [The] court
1-9 may not grant a divorce before the 60th day after the date the suit
1-10 was filed. A decree rendered in violation of this subsection is
1-11 not subject to collateral attack.
1-12 (c) A divorce may not be decreed on the grounds of
1-13 insupportability earlier than six months after the date a suit for
1-14 dissolution of the marriage was filed unless a protective order
1-15 under Title 4 has been granted for the protection of a party to the
1-16 marriage or a member of the party's family.
1-17 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-18 applies only to a suit for dissolution of a marriage filed on or
1-19 after that date. A suit for dissolution of a marriage filed before
1-20 that date is governed by the law in effect at the time the suit was
1-21 filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-1 SECTION 3. 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,
2-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-7 passage, and it is so enacted.