By: Lindsay S.B. No. 609
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the duties of an attorney ad litem in a suit affecting
1-2 the parent-child relationship.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subsection (b), Section 107.014, Family Code, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 (b) An attorney ad litem appointed to represent a child
1-7 shall within a reasonable time after the appointment:
1-8 (1) interview the child if the child is four years of
1-9 age or older;
1-10 (2) interview the child's caregivers;
1-11 (3) interview individuals with significant knowledge
1-12 of the child's history and condition; and
1-13 (4) [(3)] interview all parties to the suit.
1-14 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15 applies only to an attorney ad litem appointed on or after that
1-16 date. An attorney ad litem appointed before the effective date of
1-17 this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the attorney
1-18 ad litem was appointed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-19 for that purpose.
1-20 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-21 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.