BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 148

By: Smith, Todd

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, there exists a thriving telemarketing business focused on motor vehicle accident victims through information obtained from police reports. These victims are subjected to calls and callbacks from attorneys, chiropractors, physicians, surgeons, health care professionals, private investigators, and telemarketers soon after an accident, at a time when they are most vulnerable and often while they are impaired by pain medication. Victims should be provided with protection from further pain and suffering.  The United States Supreme Court has recognized that states have a substantial interest in protecting the privacy of accident victims, protecting accident victims and their families from the emotional distress of unwanted solicitation, and protecting the integrity of professionals licensed by the state.

C.S.H.B. 148 provides further protection to the public from professional solicitation by prohibiting certain professionals from providing or knowingly permitting to be provided to an individual who has not sought the person's employment, legal representation, advice, or care a solicitation by telephone or in person of business relating to certain legal actions or matters, including personal injury matters before a certain date or indefinitely if the person has indicated a desire not to be contacted.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 148 amends the Penal Code to expand the conditions that constitute the Class A misdemeanor offense of barratry and solicitation of professional employment for a person who is an attorney, chiropractor, physician, surgeon, or private investigator licensed to practice in Texas or a person who is licensed, certified, or registered by a health care regulatory agency of Texas, to include providing or knowingly permitting to be provided solicitation, including personal or telephone solicitation, within a certain timeframe, as applicable, on certain legal actions and matters to an individual who has not sought the person's employment, legal representation, advice, or care with the intent to obtain professional employment for the person for another. The bill makes conforming changes and a technical correction.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 148 differs from the original by including solicitation, including personal or telephone solicitation, in the Class A misdemeanor offense of barratry and solicitation of professional employment relating to certain legal actions and matters, including personal injury matters, whereas the original creates a separate Class A misdemeanor for that offense for a person who engages in professional solicitation of employment that relates to a personal injury sustained in an accident or disaster involving the solicited person or a relative of that person. The substitute differs from the original by including an attorney among the professionals to whom the offense provisions apply. 

C.S.H.B.148 differs from the original by making conforming changes and a technical correction.