By:  Nixon                                                        H.B. No. 2645



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to procedures in health care liability claims.                       
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 74.351(a), Civil Practice and Remedies 
Code, is amended as follows:
	(a)  In a health care liability claim, a claimant shall, not 
later than the 120th day after the date the suit [claim] was filed, 
serve on each party or the party's attorney one or more expert 
reports, with a curriculum vitae of each expert listed in the report 
for each physician or health care provider against whom a liability 
claim is asserted.  The date for serving the report may be extended 
by written agreement of the affected parties.  Each defendant 
physician or health care provider whose conduct is implicated in a 
report must file and serve any objection to the sufficiency of the 
report not later than the 21st day after the date it was served, 
failing which all objections are waived.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only 
to a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of 
this Act.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective date 
of this Act is governed by the law in effect immediately before that 
date, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.