1-1     By:  Goodman (Senate Sponsor - Harris)                 H.B. No. 869
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999;
 1-3     March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Jurisprudence; April 28, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable
 1-5     Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0;
 1-6     April 28, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 869                   By:  Harris
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to authorizing the appointment of certain visiting
1-11     associate judges and to the appointment of criminal law magistrates
1-12     in Tarrant County.
1-13           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-14           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 201, Family Code, is
1-15     amended by adding Section 201.018 to read as follows:
1-16           Sec. 201.018.  VISITING ASSOCIATE JUDGE.  (a)  If an
1-17     associate judge appointed under this subchapter is temporarily
1-18     unable to perform the judge's official duties because of absence or
1-19     illness, injury, or other disability, a judge of a court having
1-20     jurisdiction of a suit under this title or Title 1 or 4 may appoint
1-21     a visiting associate judge to perform the duties of the associate
1-22     judge during the period of the associate judge's absence or
1-23     disability if the commissioners court of a county in which the
1-24     court has jurisdiction authorizes the employment of a visiting
1-25     associate judge.
1-26           (b)  To be eligible for appointment under this section, a
1-27     person must have served as an associate judge for at least six
1-28     years.
1-29           (c)  Sections 201.001 through 201.017 apply to a visiting
1-30     associate judge appointed under this section.
1-31           (d)  This section does not apply to a master appointed under
1-32     Subchapter B.
1-33           SECTION 2.  Section 54.651(a), Government Code, is amended to
1-34     read as follows:
1-35           (a)  The judges of the district courts of Tarrant County that
1-36     give preference to criminal cases and[,] the judges of the criminal
1-37     district courts of Tarrant County, [and the judges of the county
1-38     criminal courts of Tarrant County,] with the consent and approval
1-39     of the Commissioners Court of Tarrant County, shall jointly appoint
1-40     the number of magistrates set by the commissioners court to perform
1-41     the duties authorized by this subchapter.
1-42           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-43     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-44     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-45     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-46     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-47     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-48     passage, and it is so enacted.
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