By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 3854
         76R5609 RJA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the assignment and docketing of cases filed in Harris
 1-3     County statutory probate courts.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 25.1034(j), Government Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           (j)  The county clerk shall keep a separate docket for each
 1-8     court.  The county clerk shall assign and docket at random [file]
 1-9     matters and proceedings filed in the statutory probate courts
1-10     according to the following percentages: [in the manner provided by
1-11     this subsection.  Cases ending in 3 or 4 shall be filed in the]
1-12     Probate Court No. 1 [4] of Harris County, 30 percent;[. Cases
1-13     ending in 0 or 5 shall be filed in the] Probate Court No. 2 [3] of
1-14     Harris County, 30 percent;[.  All other cases ending in an odd
1-15     number shall be filed in the] Probate Court No.  3 [1] of Harris
1-16     County, 20 percent; and[.  All other cases ending in an even number
1-17     shall be filed in the] Probate Court No.  4 [2] of Harris County,
1-18     20 percent.  [The clerk shall file the  cases in the courts in the
1-19     order in which the cases were deposited with the clerk for filing.]
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-21     applies only to assignment of cases filed in the statutory probate
1-22     courts of Harris County on or after that date.  Cases filed in
1-23     those courts before the effective date of this Act are governed by
1-24     the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this
 2-1     Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.