1-1     By:  Bernsen                                           S.B. No. 495
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 31, 2001; February 1, 2001,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     February 13, 2001, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
 1-5     5, Nays 0; February 13, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the educational requirements for certain justices of
 1-9     the peace.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 27.005, Government Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  For purposes of removal under Chapter 87, Local
1-14     Government Code [Title 100, Revised Statutes], "incompetency" in
1-15     the case of a justice of the peace [who is not a licensed attorney]
1-16     includes the failure of the justice to successfully complete:
1-17                 (1)  within one year after the date the justice [he] is
1-18     first elected, an 80-hour [a 40-hour] course in the performance of
1-19     the justice's [his] duties; and
1-20                 (2)  each following year, a 20-hour course.
1-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001, and
1-22     applies only to a justice of the peace first elected on or after
1-23     that date.  A justice of the peace elected before the effective
1-24     date of this Act is governed by the law in effect immediately
1-25     before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
1-26     effect for that purpose.
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