By: Hartnett (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth) H.B. No. 397
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 13, 2009;
May 14, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on
Jurisprudence; May 21, 2009, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 21, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to rules regarding return of service.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 17, Civil Practice and
Remedies Code, is amended by adding Section 17.030 to read as
follows:
Sec. 17.030. RETURN OF SERVICE. (a) The supreme court
shall adopt rules of civil procedure requiring a person who serves
process to complete a return of service.
(b) The rules:
(1) must provide that the return of service:
(A) is not required to be endorsed or attached to
the original process issued; and
(B) may be electronically filed; and
(2) may require that the following information be
included in the return of service:
(A) the cause number and case name;
(B) the court in which the case has been filed;
(C) the date and time process was received for
service;
(D) the person or entity served;
(E) the address served;
(F) the date of service;
(G) the manner of delivery of service;
(H) a description of process served;
(I) the name of the person serving process; and
(J) if the process server is certified as a
process server by the supreme court, the process server's
identification number.
(c) A person certified by the supreme court as a process
server or a person authorized outside of Texas to serve process
shall sign the return of service under penalty of perjury. The
return of service is not required to be verified.
(d) A person who knowingly or intentionally falsifies a
return of service may be prosecuted for tampering with a
governmental record as provided by Chapter 37, Penal Code.
SECTION 2. Section 17.065(b), Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, is amended to read as follows:
(b) The return of service under this section [shall be
endorsed on or attached to the original process issued and] must:
(1) state when it was served;
(2) state on whom it was served; and
(3) be signed under penalty of perjury [and sworn to]
by the party making the service [before a person authorized by law
to make an affidavit under his hand and seal].
SECTION 3. Section 17.030, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, as added by this Act, and Section 17.065, Civil Practice and
Remedies Code, as amended by this Act, apply to all process served
on or after January 1, 2010, without regard to whether the process
was issued before, on, or after that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect January 1, 2010.
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