By Nixon                                              H.B. No. 3391
         76R8380 MCK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to contingent fee contracts for legal services entered
 1-3     into by a state agency.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 2254, Government Code, is amended by
 1-6     adding Subchapter C to read as follows:
 1-7          SUBCHAPTER C.  CONTINGENT FEE CONTRACT FOR LEGAL SERVICES
 1-8           Sec. 2254.101.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
 1-9                 (1)  "Contingent fee" means that part of a fee for
1-10     legal services, under a contingent fee contract, the amount or
1-11     payment of which is  contingent on the outcome of the matter for
1-12     which the services were obtained.
1-13                 (2)  "Contingent fee contract for legal services" means
1-14     a contract for legal services under which the amount or the payment
1-15     of the fee for the services  is contingent in whole or in part on
1-16     the outcome of the matter for which the services were obtained.
1-17                 (3)  "State agency" means a department, board,
1-18     commission, office, or other agency in the executive branch of
1-19     state government.  The term includes a university system or an
1-20     institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003,
1-21     Education Code.
1-22           Sec. 2254.102.  APPROVAL OF CONTRACT.  A contingent fee
1-23     contract for legal services made by a state agency on or after the
1-24     date the legislature convenes in a regular session  but before the
 2-1     date of the final adjournment of that session is void unless the
 2-2     contract is approved by a concurrent resolution adopted at that
 2-3     regular session.  A contingent fee contract for legal services made
 2-4     by a state agency at any other time is void unless the contract is
 2-5     approved by a concurrent resolution adopted at the next regular
 2-6     session of the legislature that convenes after the date the
 2-7     contract is made.
 2-8           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
 2-9     applies only to a contract entered into on or after that date.
2-10           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.