Subject search results

6 Document(s) [ Subject: Probate courts ]

Committee: Senate Jurisprudence
Title: Interim Report
Library Catalog Title: Senate Committee on Jurisprudence interim report
Subjects: Adoption | Air pollution control technology | Child abuse | Child custody | Children's Advocacy Centers | Extraterritorial jurisdiction | Grandparents | Houston, Texas | Judges | Juries | Medical records | Occupational licenses | Parents | Private investigators | Probate courts | Records management | Rules of evidence | Texas Code of Criminal Procedure | Visitation rights |
Library Call Number: L1836.80 J979
Session: 80th R.S. (2007)
Online version: View report [161 pages  File size: 5,386 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Study the laws governing suits affecting the parent-child relationship involving non-parents, including suits for possession of or access to a child by a grandparent, and make recommendations for providing the best care and protection for the children involved. Provide an assessment of the constitutional issues involved with these suits.
2. Study the management and storage of adoption records, including the costs and benefits of converting records into digital format. Study ways to increase access by adopted persons and their children and spouses to important family medical history information and ensure that medical history information is updated, while maintaining privacy and anonymity of records.
3. Examine the role of heir finders in Texas and make recommendations regarding professional standards and fees for heir finders.
4. Identify and study best practices for representation of children in child abuse and neglect cases and determine whether to implement further training, oversight, or other requirements for judges, attorneys, and others responsible for child abuse and neglect cases, including child sexual abuse cases. Develop and implement tools for children’s advocacy centers (CACs) and prosecutors to successfully investigate and prosecute child abusers. Include the following:
  • Explore changes to the rules of evidence that could facilitate the presentation of child testimony in court;
  • Explore making prior extraneous sex offenses admissible during determination of guilt, as has been adopted in the federal court system; and
  • Explore possible expansion of the rules regarding how cases are consolidated and punishments are stacked in a single trial involving a crime committed against a child.
5. Study practices intended to enhance the jury experience and increase jury participation, including:
  • allowing jurors to ask questions of witnesses by submitting them to the judge in writing;
  • allowing lawyers to periodically summarize testimony for the jury;
  • allowing jurors to take notes during trial; and
  • allowing jurors to discuss evidence among themselves during trial.
6. Study and make recommendations relating to the jurisdiction, authority, power and discretion of probate judges in Texas, including the authority of a probate judge to intervene in a non-probate case.
7. Study administrative and legal procedures used by municipalities to exert regulatory authority beyond city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction. Determine whether conflicts exist with agencies' regulatory authority and regulatory authority delegated to home-rule municipalities, and make recommendations for appropriate delegation and clarification of respective authorities.
8. Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Jurisprudence Committee, 80th R.S., and make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, and/or complete implementation.
Committee: Senate Jurisprudence
Title: Interim Report
Library Catalog Title: Senate Committee on Jurisprudence interim report : report the 80th Legislature
Subjects: Alternative dispute resolution | Child support | County courts | Court costs and fees | Court records | Court reporters | Debt collection | Fines | Guardianship | Legal fees | Probate courts | Probation |
Library Call Number: L1836.79 J979
Session: 79th R.S. (2005)
Online version: View report [121 pages  File size: 5,464 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Examine and make recommendations relating to the jurisdiction of statutory county courts, including the development of standardized language for Chapter 25, Government Code, to confer specific types of jurisdiction on statutory county courts and to ensure the statutes are clear and concise.
2. Examine and make recommendations to improve court oversight of fiduciaries appointed to make financial and personal decisions for wards as well as those appointed to administer an estate or trust.
3. Study and make recommendations relating to the use and cost benefits of electronic recording as an alternative method of preserving records of official court proceedings.
4. Monitor the implementation of SB 1863, 79th R.S., specifically the Collection Improvement Program, which seeks to improve the collection of criminal court fees, fines and costs. Make recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the Collection Improvement Program and determine if any statutory changes are necessary.
5. Study and make recommendations relating to the possible uses and need for statutory directives regarding the use of collaborative law procedures.
6. Review statutes, regulations, guidelines, and formulas relating to child support and make recommendations, if necessary, to ensure adequate support, including educational expenses, for children.
Committee: House Judicial Affairs
Title: Interim report
Library Catalog Title: House Committee on Judicial Affairs, Texas House of Representatives interim report, 1998 : a report to the House of Representatives, 76th Texas Legislature.
Subjects: County attorneys | Judicial districts | Judicial Districts Board | Judicial selection | Municipal courts | Probate courts | Redistricting |
Library Call Number: L1836.75 j899
Session: 75th R.S. (1997)
Online version: View report [138 pages  File size: 6,596 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Conduct active oversight of agencies under the committee's jurisdiction.
2. Review the feasibility of drafting a Uniform Municipal Courts of Record Act, such that future municipal courts of record bills could simply add the name of the city and any special provisions relating to that court (similar to Chapter 25, Government Code, dealing with statutory county courts).
3. Review the responsibilities of county attorneys in light of new duties in the prosecution of felony crimes to determine whether those duties are effectively discharged, or whether additional resources are needed.
4. Review the courts' methods for equalizing appellate court caseloads, including any additional measures that would be beneficial. Determine why prior attempts to redistrict appellate courts have been unsuccessful and whether new methods are necessary to accomplish redistricting.
5. Study the benefits of merging district, statutory county courts, and constitutional county courts for probate matters into a single level of multi-county statutory probate courts.
Committee: Joint Statutory Probate Courts Jurisdiction, Interim
Title: Interim report
Library Catalog Title: Report and recommendations to the 76th Legislature.
Subjects: Probate courts |
Library Call Number: L1836.75 p94
Session: 75th R.S. (1997)
Online version: View report [14 pages  File size: 760 kb]
Charge: This report should address the charge below.
1. The Legislative Committee on Statutory Probate Courts shall study the statutory probate system of Texas and the jurisdiction of the various courts with probate jurisdiction. The Committee shall make recommendations for legislative action concerning the appropriate jurisdiction of those courts.
Committee: House Judicial Affairs
Title: Interim report
Library Catalog Title: Committee on Judicial Affairs, Texas House of Representatives interim report, 1996 : a report to the House of Representatives, 75th Texas Legislature.
Subjects: Child custody | Civil legal aid | Juries | Jury duty | Kidnapping | Probate courts | Visitation rights |
Library Call Number: L1836.75 j899
Session: 74th R.S. (1995)
Online version: View report [44 pages  File size: 2,131 kb]
Charges: This report should address the charges below.
1. Conduct active oversight of agencies under the committee's jurisdiction.
2. Study the feasibility of developing uniform forms for simple pro se proceedings like uncontested divorce actions involving no property or children and probate proceedings in small, simple and uncontested cases to conform with current law.
3. Review current issues relating to jury service, including exemptions from service, composition of the jury wheel and possible variations in jury wheel composition in different counties.
4. Review the Probate Code to determine the merits of allowing securities to transfer on the death of the owner by registration of the beneficiary.
5. Study parental kidnaping laws that allow for child locations and protect battered women.
Committee: House Judiciary
Title: Interim Report - Probate Code
Library Catalog Title: Interim report : proposed revision of the Texas probate code / Committee on the Judiciary, Sixty-sixth Legislature.
Subjects: Guardianship | Probate courts | Statutory revision |
Library Call Number: L1836.65 j898p
Session: 65th R.S. (1977)
Online version: View report [78 pages  File size: 2,650 kb]
Charge: This report should address the charge below.
1. A review of the probate laws of Texas, including a study of the advantages and disadvantages of enacting, in whole or in part, the Uniform Probate Code. This study should also include recommendations as to the need for further recodification of the existing probate laws.

Information on this website is provided as a public service by the Legislative Reference Library. The Legislative Reference Library makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy and makes no warranty in regard to its use. Users assume all risk of reliance on the information included on this site.