By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 697
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to credits for settlements in certain civil actions.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 33.012, Civil Practice
 1-4     and Remedies Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-5           (b)  If the claimant has settled with one or more persons,
 1-6     the court shall further reduce the amount of damages to be
 1-7     recovered by the claimant with respect to a cause of action by a
 1-8     credit equal to one of the following, as elected in accordance with
 1-9     Section 33.014:
1-10                 (1)  the sum of the dollar amounts of all settlements;
1-11     or
1-12                 (2)  a dollar amount that is determined by:
1-13                       (A)  computing [equal to] the sum of the
1-14     percentages of responsibility of all settling persons; and
1-15                       (B)  multiplying the amount [following
1-16     percentages] of damages found by the trier of fact by the
1-17     percentage computed under Paragraph (A)[:]
1-18                       [(A)  5 percent of those damages up to $200,000;]
1-19                       [(B)  10 percent of those damages from $200,001
1-20     to $400,000;]
1-21                       [(C)  15 percent of those damages from $400,001
1-22     to $500,000; and]
1-23                       [(D)  20 percent of those damages greater than
1-24     $500,000].
 2-1           SECTION 2.  This Act applies only to a suit that is commenced
 2-2     on or after the effective date of this Act.  A suit that is
 2-3     commenced before the effective date of this Act is governed by the
 2-4     law applicable to the suit immediately before the effective date of
 2-5     this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-6           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-7           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.