BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1893

By: Birdwell

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that an increased workload has necessitated the creation of additional administrative judicial regions in Texas. S.B. 1893 seeks to create the Tenth and Eleventh Administrative Judicial Regions.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 1893 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Judicial Council to collect judicial statistics and other pertinent information from the presiding judges of each administrative judicial region in Texas regarding the amount and character of any business transacted by the presiding judges. The bill requires the presiding judges, as a duty of office, to report monthly any such information required by the council.

S.B. 1893 creates the Tenth and Eleventh Administrative Judicial Regions on September 1, 2017. Effective September 1, 2017, the bill sets out the composition of those administrative judicial regions, revises the composition of the First and Second Administrative Judicial Regions to reflect the creation of the additional regions, and transfers Robertson County from the Second Administrative Judicial Region to the Third Administrative Judicial Region.

S.B. 1893 requires the governor, on September 1, 2017, to appoint judges with the advice and consent of the senate to serve as presiding judges in the Tenth and Eleventh Administrative Judicial Regions and any administrative judicial region in which a vacancy in office occurs because the presiding judge of a judicial region is no longer qualified to serve as the presiding judge of the region because of the composition of the region on that date. The bill requires the county in which a presiding judge so appointed resides to provide on September 1, 2017, adequate quarters for the operation of the applicable administrative judicial region. The bill requires the regional presiding judges of the First through Ninth Administrative Judicial Regions, not later than September 1, 2017, to develop and adopt by majority vote budgets for the Tenth and Eleventh Administrative Judicial Regions that include an assessment for each county included in the area that will comprise the new regions and authorizes such presiding judges by majority vote to transfer money, as necessary, from the existing judicial regions to the Tenth and Eleventh Administrative Judicial Regions not later than that date. A judge or associate judge or coordinator assigned or appointed to a court in a county included in the First, Second, Third, Tenth, or Eleventh Administrative Judicial Region on September 1, 2017, continues to serve in that position until removed by the regional presiding judge.

EFFECTIVE DATE

Except as otherwise provided, on passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, on the 91st day after the last day of the legislative session.