1-1     By:  Tillery (Senate Sponsor - Madla)                 H.B. No. 2201
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 1999;
 1-3     May 10, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Intergovernmental Relations; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by
 1-5     the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to
 1-6     printer.)
 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-8                                   AN ACT
 1-9     relating to the authority of a municipal court judge to sit for
1-10     another municipal court judge under certain circumstances.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 29, Government Code, is
1-13     amended by adding Section 29.012 to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 29.012.  SITTING FOR DISQUALIFIED OR RECUSED JUDGE.  (a)
1-15     If the judge of a municipal court is disqualified or recused in a
1-16     pending case, the  judge of another municipal court located in an
1-17     adjacent municipality may sit in the case.
1-18           (b)  A municipal court judge may not sit in a case for
1-19     another municipal court judge under this section if either party
1-20     objects to the judge. An objection under this subsection must be
1-21     filed before the first hearing or trial, including pretrial
1-22     hearings, over which the judge is to preside.
1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-25     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-26     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-27     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-28     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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