By Longoria                                            H.B. No. 194
         76R924 MLS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to fees collected in certain civil suits.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 51.317, Government Code, is amended by
 1-5     adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
 1-6           (d)  The district clerk shall collect, in addition to other
 1-7     fees, a $45 joint action filing fee from each plaintiff who is a
 1-8     party to a joint action.
 1-9           (e)  A plaintiff may establish an exemption from paying the
1-10     joint action filing fee required under Subsection (d) by providing
1-11     to the district clerk an affidavit stating that:
1-12                 (1)  the joint action regards a matter under the Family
1-13     Code;
1-14                 (2)  the plaintiff is indigent and unable to pay the
1-15     joint action filing fee;
1-16                 (3)  the filing fee under Subsection (b)(1) has been
1-17     paid for each plaintiff who is a party to the joint action or an
1-18     affidavit has been provided to the clerk under Subdivision (2) or
1-19     (4) for each plaintiff who is a party to the joint action; or
1-20                 (4)  the plaintiff is a resident of this state.
1-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-22     applies to a fee that becomes payable for a suit filed in a
1-23     district court or appealed from an inferior court on or after that
1-24     date.  A fee that became payable before the effective date of this
 2-1     Act is governed by the law in effect when the fee became payable,
 2-2     and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.