By:  Duncan                                           S.B. No. 1436
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the authority of a judge to hear pretrial matters in a
 1-2     county other than the one in which the suit is filed.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 74.094, Government Code, is amended by
 1-5     adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
 1-6           (e)  A judge who has jurisdiction over a suit pending in one
 1-7     county may, if both parties agree, hear the suit's pretrial matters
 1-8     in a different county.
 1-9           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-10     applies to a suit filed on or after that date.  A suit filed before
1-11     the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when
1-12     the suit was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
1-13     that purpose.
1-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.