By Thompson H.B. No. 1609 76R4224 PEP-F A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to certain electronically created records used in a 1-3 justice or municipal court. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Article 45.021, Code of Criminal Procedure, is 1-6 amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (f) to 1-7 read as follows: 1-8 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a document 1-9 that is issued by a justice or municipal court or a notice or 1-10 citation issued by a law enforcement officer may be created by 1-11 electronic means, including optical imaging, optical disk, or other 1-12 electronic reproduction technique that does not permit changes, 1-13 additions, or deletions to the originally created document. 1-14 (f) A statutory requirement that a document contain the 1-15 signature of any person, including a judge, clerk of the court, or 1-16 defendant, is satisfied if the document contains that signature as 1-17 captured on an electronic device. 1-18 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-23 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-24 passage, and it is so enacted.