By Lindsay S.B. No. 609
76R5308 CMR-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the duties of an attorney ad litem in a suit affecting
1-3 the parent-child relationship.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 107.014(b), Family Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (b) An attorney ad litem appointed to represent a child
1-8 shall within a reasonable time after the appointment:
1-9 (1) interview the child if the child is four years of
1-10 age or older;
1-11 (2) interview the child's caregivers;
1-12 (3) interview individuals with significant knowledge
1-13 of the child's history and condition; and
1-14 (4) [(3)] interview all parties to the suit.
1-15 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-16 applies only to an attorney ad litem appointed on or after that
1-17 date. An attorney ad litem appointed before the effective date of
1-18 this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the attorney
1-19 ad litem was appointed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-20 for that purpose.
1-21 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-22 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.