By: Whitmire S.B. No. 1697
(In the Senate - Filed March 6, 2019; March 14, 2019, read
first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
April 23, 2019, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 6,
Nays 0; April 23, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the requirements for a change of name for a person with
a final felony conviction or a person required to register as a sex
offender.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 45.103, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (b) and (c) and adding Subsection (d) to read
as follows:
(b) A court may order a change of name under this subchapter
for a person with a final felony conviction if:
(1) [,] in addition to the requirements of Subsection
(a), the person has:
(A) [(1)] received a certificate of discharge by
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or completed a period of
community supervision or juvenile probation ordered by a court and
not less than two years have passed from the date of the receipt of
discharge or completion of community supervision or juvenile
probation; or
(B) [(2)] been pardoned; or
(2) the person is requesting to change the person's
name to the primary name used in the person's criminal history
record information.
(c) A court may order a change of name under this subchapter
for a person subject to the registration requirements of Chapter
62, Code of Criminal Procedure, if the person:
(1) meets[, in addition to] the requirements of
Subsection (a) or is requesting to change the person's name to the
primary name used in the person's criminal history record
information; and
(2) [, the person] provides the court with proof that
the person has notified the appropriate local law enforcement
authority of the proposed name change.
(d) In this section:
(1) "Criminal history record information" has the
meaning assigned by Section 411.082, Government Code.
(2) "Local [subsection, "local] law enforcement
authority" has the meaning assigned by Article 62.001, Code of
Criminal Procedure.
SECTION 2. Section 45.103, Family Code, as amended by this
Act, applies only to a petition for a change of name that is filed on
or after the effective date of this Act. A petition filed before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
the date the petition was filed, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
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