BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 1435 |
By: Darby |
Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Current law imposes various notice and report requirements on court and county clerks. Interested parties contend that in some cases, clerks are unable to comply with such requirements because they do not have access to the necessary information. C.S.H.B. 1435 seeks to address this situation by revising the duties of court and county clerks with respect to certain notices, reports, and descriptions.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1435 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a victim assistance coordinator, on request, to provide a court clerk with information or other assistance necessary for the clerk to comply with the requirement to provide notification of the release of a person acquitted by reason of insanity to the victim or the victim's guardian or close relative if the court issues an order that requires the release of that person on discharge or on a regimen of outpatient care.
C.S.H.B. 1435 amends the Family Code to remove a statutory provision making it a Class C misdemeanor offense for the clerk of a court exercising jurisdiction over a juvenile offender's case to violate the requirement to report the disposition of the case to the Department of Public Safety. The bill makes a requirement for the clerk of a court issuing a protective order involving a respondent who is a member of the state military or is serving in the U.S. military in an active-duty status to provide a copy of the order and certain information to the staff judge advocate at Joint Force Headquarters or the provost marshal of the specified military installation applicable only if the applicant or the applicant's attorney provides to the clerk of the court the mailing address of the staff judge advocate or provost marshal, as applicable.
C.S.H.B. 1435 amends the Government Code to remove the requirement for the court in an action in which a party to the litigation files a petition, motion, or other pleading challenging the constitutionality of a Texas statute to serve notice of the constitutional question and a copy of the petition, motion, or other pleading that raises the challenge on the attorney general, if the attorney general is not a party to or counsel involved in the litigation. The bill instead requires the party filing the petition, motion, or other pleading to serve the notice and the copy.
C.S.H.B. 1435 amends the Health and Safety Code to remove a statutory provision exempting the council of governments for an area in which a former municipal solid waste unit is located from the requirement to notify the owner of land that overlays the former landfill unit of the former use of the land and to notify the county clerk of the county or counties in which the former landfill unit is located of the former use. The bill removes a requirement for such a county clerk to record on the deed records of land formerly used as a municipal solid waste landfill a description of the exact boundaries of the former landfill unit or, if the exact boundaries are not known, the best approximation of each unit's boundaries; a legal description of the parcel or parcels of land in which the former landfill unit is located; notice of the former landfill unit's former use; and notice of the restrictions on the land imposed under statutory provisions governing a regional or local solid waste management plan. The bill instead requires the notice submitted by the council of governments to the county clerk to include such descriptions and notices, requires the county clerk to record the descriptions and notices submitted by a council of governments, and authorizes the county clerk to prescribe the method of arranging and indexing the descriptions and notices. The bill requires the county clerk to make the descriptions and notices, rather than the deed records, available for public inspection.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1435 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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