BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1422

By: West

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Many courts currently allow for electronic filing, or e-filing, of documents, and e-filing will soon become mandatory for most Texas courts.  Interested parties observe, however, that attorneys are not authorized in statute to digitally sign documents in certain family law cases.  As a result, documents are sometimes printed on paper for the sole purpose of applying a signature and then are subsequently scanned back into digital format for e-filing.  S.B. 1422 seeks to eliminate the unnecessary process of printing certain legal documents that will be e-filed by allowing the use of digitized signatures in certain family law cases.  

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

S.B. 1422 amends the Family Code to establish that a digitized signature, defined by the bill as a graphic image of a handwritten signature having the same legal force and effect for all purposes as a handwritten signature, on an original petition or any other pleading or order in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship satisfies the requirements for and imposes the duties of signatories to pleadings, motions, and other papers identified under Rule 13, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The bill requires a digitized signature to be applied by and to remain under the sole control of the person whose signature is represented.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.