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.