1-1     By:  Thompson (Senate Sponsor - Lindsay)              H.B. No. 3854
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 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 assignment and docketing of cases filed in Harris
1-10     County statutory probate courts.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Section 25.1034(j), Government Code, is amended
1-13     to read as follows:
1-14           (j)  The county clerk shall keep a separate docket for each
1-15     court.  The county clerk shall assign and docket at random [file]
1-16     matters and proceedings filed in the statutory probate courts
1-17     according to the following percentages: [in the manner provided by
1-18     this subsection.  Cases ending in 3 or 4 shall be filed in the]
1-19     Probate Court No. 1 [4] of Harris County, 30 percent;[. Cases
1-20     ending in 0 or 5 shall be filed in the] Probate Court No. 2 [3] of
1-21     Harris County, 30 percent;[.  All other cases ending in an odd
1-22     number shall be filed in the] Probate Court No.  3 [1] of Harris
1-23     County, 20 percent; and[.  All other cases ending in an even number
1-24     shall be filed in the] Probate Court No.  4 [2] of Harris County,
1-25     20 percent.  [The clerk shall file the  cases in the courts in the
1-26     order in which the cases were deposited with the clerk for filing.]
1-27           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-28     applies only to assignment of cases filed in the statutory probate
1-29     courts of Harris County on or after that date.  Cases filed in
1-30     those courts before the effective date of this Act are governed by
1-31     the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this
1-32     Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-33           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-34     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-35     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-36     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-37     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-38                                  * * * * *