By Farrar                                              H.B. No. 945
         76R2417 PB-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the recovery of attorney's fees in an action alleging
 1-3     discrimination against an employee who sustains a  compensable
 1-4     injury.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 451.002(a), Labor Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  A person who violates Section 451.001 is liable for
 1-9     reasonable damages and attorney's fees incurred by the employee  as
1-10     a result of the violation.
1-11           SECTION 2.   Section 451.002(a), Labor Code, as amended by
1-12     this Act, applies  only to the recovery of attorney's fees in a
1-13     cause of action that  accrues on or after the effective date of
1-14     this Act.  Recovery of attorney's fees in a cause of action that
1-15     accrues before that date is governed by the law as it existed
1-16     immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
1-17     continued in effect for that purpose.
1-18           SECTION 3.   This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-19           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.