Relating to a justice or municipal court's authority to order a defendant confined in jail for failure to pay a fine or cost or for contempt and to the authority of a municipality to enforce the collection of certain fines by imprisonment of the defendant.

HB 743 prohibits Texas municipal and justice courts from jailing people for failing to pay fines or costs related to minor offenses punishable by fine only (like traffic violations). The bill requires courts to first determine if a defendant is financially unable to pay before considering confinement, and mandates that defendants jailed for unpaid fines receive credit at a rate of $150 for every 8-24 hours served. It also explicitly bans imprisonment for contempt related to such fines. This directly affects low-income defendants in municipal court cases for non-serious offenses, ending the practice of incarcerating people solely due to inability to pay.