By George                                             H.B. No. 2665
         76R7922 JMM-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the immunity from liability of employers who provide
 1-3     certain information to a law enforcement agency.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Title 4, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Chapter 97 to read as follows:
 1-7       CHAPTER 97.  EMPLOYER IMMUNITY FOR INFORMATION PROVIDED TO LAW
 1-8                            ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
 1-9           Sec. 97.001.  IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY.  (a)  An
1-10     employer who discloses information on request to a law enforcement
1-11     agency about a current or former employee of the employer is immune
1-12     from civil liability for that disclosure or any damages proximately
1-13     caused by that disclosure unless it is proven by a preponderance of
1-14     the evidence that the information disclosed was known by that
1-15     employer to be false at the time the disclosure was made.
1-16           (b)  This section applies to a managerial employee or other
1-17     representative of the employer who is authorized to provide and who
1-18     provides information under this section in the same manner that it
1-19     applies to an employer.
1-20           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-21           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to a
1-22     cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of this
1-23     Act.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective date of
1-24     this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the
 2-1     disclosure was made, and the former law is continued in effect for
 2-2     that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.