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 individuals with significant knowledge 1-11 of the child's history and condition, including the child's foster 1-12 parents; and 1-13 (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, 2-1 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-2 passage, and it is so enacted. _______________________________ _______________________________ President of the Senate Speaker of the House I hereby certify that S.B. No. 609 passed the Senate on March 25, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 28, 1999, by a viva-voce vote. _______________________________ Secretary of the Senate I hereby certify that S.B. No. 609 passed the House, with amendment, on May 26, 1999, by the following vote: Yeas 144, Nays 0, two present not voting. _______________________________ Chief Clerk of the House Approved: _______________________________ Date _______________________________ Governor