By Tillery                                            H.B. No. 2201
         76R13260 JMC-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the authority of a municipal court judge to sit for
 1-3     another municipal court judge under certain circumstances.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 29, Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 29.012 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 29.012.  SITTING FOR DISQUALIFIED OR RECUSED JUDGE.  (a)
 1-8     If the judge of a municipal court is disqualified or recused in a
 1-9     pending case, the  judge of another municipal court located in an
1-10     adjacent municipality may sit in the case.
1-11           (b)  A municipal court judge may not sit in a case for
1-12     another municipal court judge under this section if either party
1-13     objects to the judge. An objection under this subsection must be
1-14     filed before the first hearing or trial, including pretrial
1-15     hearings, over which the judge is to preside.
1-16           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.