Rep. Jeff Leach
By a margin of 137-3, the House has passed HB 2384 to third reading. Authored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Allen), joined by co-authors Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Junction), Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Farmers Branch), and Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso), HB 2384 makes the most significant improvements in decades to judicial training requirements, access to pertinent voter information about judicial candidates, and data collection about the performance of our trial courts. The bill also creates a first-ever board certification in judicial administration for lawyers and sitting judges that we hope will become the national gold standard in judicial education. Pending its final passage tomorrow, the bill now moves on to the Senate.
We will have more on this to come, but for the moment our thanks go out to Chairman Leach and his staff and the bipartisan group of co-authors on the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee who have gotten the bill to this point. HB 2384 proves that it is still possible to address improvements to the judicial system by bringing everyone to the table and coming up with common sense solutions. The bill has the support of every major association of trial attorneys (TADC, TTLA, and TXABOTA) and every major business organization. Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of former Senator and judicial reform champion Bob Duncan and Citizens for Judicial Excellence in Texas, HB 2384 represents a very significant step forward in making sure that Texans now and in the future have the best judiciary in the nation.
