By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 1608
         76R3884 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority of certain county judges to engage in the
 1-3     private practice of law.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 26, Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 26.007 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 26.007.  PRIVATE PRACTICE BY COUNTY JUDGE; LIMITATION.
 1-8     A county judge who is licensed to practice law in this state may
 1-9     engage in the private practice of law, except that the judge may
1-10     not appear or plead as an attorney in the judge's court or in any
1-11     court in this state over which the judge's court exercises
1-12     appellate jurisdiction.
1-13           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-19     passage, and it is so enacted.