By: Jones of Harris (Senate Sponsor - West) H.B. No. 1695
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 2023;
May 9, 2023, read first time and referred to Committee on State
Affairs; May 23, 2023, rereferred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
May 23, 2023, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 4,
Nays 0; May 23, 2023, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the enforcement of an order to pay child support by
contempt.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 157.162, Family Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(d) The court may not find a respondent in contempt of court
for failure to pay child support if the respondent appears at the
hearing with:
(1) a copy of the payment record or other evidence
satisfactory to the court showing that the respondent is current in
the payment of child support as ordered by the court; and
(2) evidence satisfactory to the court showing that
the respondent's failure to make timely payments was due to an error
made by a third party or other circumstances outside the
respondent's control.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a hearing to enforce an order in a suit affecting the
parent-child relationship that commences on or after the effective
date of this Act. A hearing that commences before the effective
date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the
hearing commenced, and the former law is continued in effect for
that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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