1-1     By:  Carona                                            S.B. No. 424
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 5, 1999; February 9, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     February 24, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
 1-5     4, Nays 0; February 24, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the examination required for certification as a court
 1-9     reporter.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 52.023, Government Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (b)  Part A consists of five minutes of two-voice dictation
1-14     of questions and answers given at 225 words per minute, five
1-15     minutes of dictation of jury charges given at 200 words per minute,
1-16     and five minutes of dictation of selected literary material given
1-17     at 180 words per minute.  Each applicant must personally take down
1-18     the test material, either in writing or in voice, and must prepare
1-19     [type] a transcript of the material taken down.  [The applicant may
1-20     use either a manual or an electric typewriter.]  The minimum
1-21     passing grade for each section of Part A is 95 percent.  A
1-22     dictionary may be used during Part A.  Each applicant has three
1-23     hours to complete the transcription of Part A.  If an applicant
1-24     finishes before the three hours have elapsed, the applicant may
1-25     review the transcript but may use only the test material taken down
1-26     by that applicant to review the transcript.  An error is charged
1-27     for:
1-28                 (1)  each wrong word;
1-29                 (2)  each omitted word;
1-30                 (3)  each word added by the applicant that was not
1-31     dictated;
1-32                 (4)  each contraction interpreted by the applicant as
1-33     two words;
1-34                 (5)  two words interpreted by the applicant as a
1-35     contraction;
1-36                 (6)  each misplaced word;
1-37                 (7)  each misplaced period that materially alters the
1-38     sense of a group of words or a sentence;
1-39                 (8)  each misspelled word;
1-40                 (9)  the use of the plural or singular if the opposite
1-41     was dictated; and
1-42                 (10)  each wrong number.
1-43           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-44     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-45     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-46     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-47     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-48     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-49     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-50                                  * * * * *