2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB2697
Beginning September 1, 2025, a bail-bond surety—a person or company guaranteeing a defendant's appearance—must notify the prosecutor with jurisdiction before filing an affidavit seeking to surrender that defendant when the charge…
Official caption: Relating to certain procedures in connection with a bond forfeiture.
Official report lists House author(s): Anchía, Cook, Little, Plesa. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- Beginning September 1, 2025, a bail-bond surety—a person or company guaranteeing a defendant's appearance—must notify the prosecutor with jurisdiction before filing an affidavit seeking to surrender that defendant when the charged offense is classified as a felony under the Penal Code.
- This adds prosecutor notice to the existing requirement to notify the defendant's attorney, if the defendant has one, using a method provided by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21a.
- Notice is not prosecutor consent: HB2697 does not give the prosecutor a veto, set a specific advance-notice interval, or automatically authorize an arrest.
What does it do?
Beginning September 1, 2025, a bail-bond surety—a person or company guaranteeing a defendant’s appearance—must notify the prosecutor with jurisdiction before filing an affidavit seeking to surrender that defendant when the charged offense is classified as a felony under the Penal Code. The affidavit must confirm that the required notice was given. Final law
This adds prosecutor notice to the existing requirement to notify the defendant’s attorney, if the defendant has one, using a method provided by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21a. It does not replace defense-attorney notice. The affidavit still identifies the court and case, defendant, charged offense, bond date and reason for surrender.
Notice is not prosecutor consent: HB2697 does not give the prosecutor a veto, set a specific advance-notice interval, or automatically authorize an arrest. The unchanged remainder of Article 17.19 requires the court or magistrate to find cause before issuing the applicable arrest process. Nor does this amendment itself declare a bond forfeited, create a new criminal offense, or change every procedure for every kind of felony bond. Its new notice requirement uses the specific Penal Code classification language above.
What changed along the way?
The official history, text versions, and amendment index show no floor amendments and no substantive change between the filed proposal, House committee and engrossed texts, Senate report and enrolled law. The bill makes one focused change to Article 17.19 and sets its effective date.
The House passed it 144–1, with two present but not voting; the Senate passed it 31–0. The governor signed it June 20, 2025. Signing did not make it effective immediately: the law expressly says September 1.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Prosecutors gain advance awareness that a surety intends to seek the defendant’s surrender. Sureties have an additional notification and affidavit-compliance step. Defendants retain the existing attorney-notice and judicial-cause requirements; the bill does not promise that a surrender request will be denied or that a defendant will remain out of custody.
The latest fiscal note, dated May 19, expects no significant state or local fiscal effect and assumes costs can be absorbed with existing resources. The criminal-justice impact statement finds no express new felony, punishment increase or change to felony supervision/parole eligibility and expects no significant correctional-resource effect. These are budget estimates, not a guarantee that each notice takes no time or money.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
