BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	H.B. 1182
	By: Harless (Whitmire)
	Criminal Justice
	5/17/2023
	Engrossed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Current law requires the Texas Judicial Council to collect judicial statistics and other pertinent information from state judges and other court officials. The code establishes requirements for monthly reports to the Office of Court Administration. For justice and municipal courts, reports are filed individually by each court and the information within them is extensive, including data about bench and jury trials, dismissals, acquittals, and other topics. For the criminal county, district, and statutory county courts, each county files a consolidated report.

There are currently no rules or requirements that provide for the criminal courts to report data in the same individual format as the lower courts, leaving much of this information hidden from the public and the voters who elect judges for each of these courts.

There should be consistent standards for the reporting of data from different types of courts to the Office of Court Administration (OCA) that ensure the judicial information is published in a manner easily accessible to the public.

The bill would require OCA to gather monthly activity statistics by each trial court of its data collection duties and to publish the information collected from each court on the office's website in a searchable format. The bill would require the Texas Judicial Council to adopt rules necessary to implement the provisions of the bill.

H.B. 1182 amends current law relating to judicial statistics and other pertinent information, including landlord and tenant dispute information, gathered by or reported to the Texas Judicial Council and certain populous counties.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Judicial Council in SECTION 2 (Section 71.0354, Government Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 71.035, Government Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (a-1), (a-2), and (a-3), as follows:

(a) Requires the Texas Judicial Council (TJC) to gather judicial statistics and other pertinent information, including monthly court activity statistics for each trial court in this state, from the several state judges and other court officials of this state.

(a-1) Creates this subsection from existing text and makes a nonsubstantive change.

(a-2) Creates this subsection from existing text. Requires that a monthly report required by Subsection (a) or (a-1) (relating to requiring TJC to implement a monthly tracking system) be transmitted to the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System (OCA) no later than the 20th day of the month following the month reported, in the form and manner prescribed by OCA, which is authorized to include electronic data transfer. Requires OCA to publish the information for each court on the office's public Internet website in a searchable format. Makes nonsubstantive changes.

(a-3) Requires a court official for each court in the county, in a county with a population greater than one million, to submit to the appropriate county official for publication on the county's public Internet website a copy of each monthly report required under Subsections (a) and (a-1) within the time required by Subsection (a-2). Requires the county to publish the information for each court on the county's Internet website in a searchable format.

Deletes existing text requiring that copies of such reports be maintained in the office of the appropriate district or county clerk for a period of at least two years and be available to the public for inspection and reproduction.

SECTION 2. Amends Subchapter C, Chapter 71, Government Code, by adding Section 71.0354, as follows:

Sec. 71.0354. LANDLORD AND TENANT DISPUTE INFORMATION: COURTS. (a) Requires a court with jurisdiction over landlord and tenant disputes, as a component of the official monthly report submitted under Section 71.035 (Statistics; Enforcement by Mandamus), to report by category each case filed in the court under Chapter 24 (Forcible Entry and Detainer), Property Code, or Title 8 (Landlord and Tenant), Property Code, including:

(1) eviction suits;

(2) suits involving the disconnection of utilities;

(3) repair and remedy suits;

(4) suits involving security deposits;

(5) suits involving unlawful lockouts;

(6) suits involving the provision of security and safety devices; and

(7) any other category of suit involving a landlord or tenant brought under Title 8, Property Code, and designated by TJC.

(b) Authorizes TJC to adopt rules as necessary to implement this section.

SECTION 3. Requires TJC, as soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, to adopt any rules necessary to implement the changes in law made by this Act.

SECTION 4. (a) Requires TJC, as soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, to prescribe the categories of landlord and tenant suits a court is required to report under Section 71.0354, Government Code, as added by this Act, and the procedures for reporting under that section.

(b) Provides that a court, notwithstanding Section 71.0354, Government Code, as added by this Act, is not required to report landlord and tenant dispute information under that section until after TJC establishes the categories and procedures for reporting under that section.

SECTION 5. Effective date: September 1, 2023.