Some of the new Texas laws for 2017

The Texas Legislature met this year and, as usual, many new laws are going into effect.

Here are just a few that involve family law or stalking.

1. There is a new revenge porn law now in effect.

2. The Penal Code for harassment now includes phone calls and electronic communications.

Look at Penal Code Section 42.07(a) and 47.072

3. Code of Criminal Procedure now includes stalking provisions that include that no prior relationship is needed and it can last a lifetime for the parties

4. Penal Code 37.09 has been revised to include evidence tampering that includes social media and creating fake evidence or destroying digitized evidence

5. The issues brought up in the Stephanie Lee case are being addressed in the Texas Family Code 153.0071 - family violence as well as impaired party's ability to reason and not in the child's best interest

If in doubt, talk to a Texas attorney that specializes in the area of the law that you have concerns or questions about regarding the new laws.

If you want a law changed, NOW is the time to begin working on it.
You need to contact your local Texas legislature representatives and begin working on the wording that you want for your change to a law or implementation of a new law.

The Texas Legislature meets again in 2019 and if you wait until 2019 it's probably too late.

To pass a law in Texas, you need to talk to your Texas representative, explain why the law is needed, get signatures supporting the law that you want added and/or changed, have people email their TX representatives voicing their desire to a change in Texas law and you need to be in Austin when the legislature meets in 2019 to talk to the reps. in person. It's a lot of work.