Texas procedural guides

Plain-English guides to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, each one tied to the rules it relies on. Every rule named in a guide has its own page with the official text.

• Answering a lawsuit in Texas: the Monday deadline and what an answer has to sayTexas doesn't give you 20 days to answer a lawsuit. It gives you until 10:00 a.m. on a Monday. Here's how that deadline works and what the rules require an answer to contain.
• Default judgments in Texas: what the plaintiff has to prove and when the court can sign oneA missed answer deadline in Texas doesn't produce a judgment the next morning. Rule 239 and Rule 107 set conditions the plaintiff has to meet first. Here's what they are.
• Setting aside a default judgment in Texas: the thirty-day window, and what happens after it shutsTexas gives a trial court thirty days of plenary power over its own judgment. Rules 320, 329b and 306a decide how long that window really lasts — and what's left when it closes.
• How you get served in Texas — and what each method does to your deadlineTexas allows personal delivery, certified mail, substituted service, out-of-state service, publication and waiver. The method changes the proof required — and sometimes the clock.
• Responding to an eviction in Texas: the trial date, the four-day rule, and why an answer isn't the pointA Texas eviction runs on a schedule set by Rule 510, not by Rule 99. Trial is 10 to 21 days after filing, an answer is optional, and appearing at trial is what actually matters.
• Appealing a Texas eviction: five days, and the rent you have to keep payingRule 510.19 gives five days to appeal a justice court eviction — and a second five-day deadline to pay rent into the court registry. Missing either can produce a writ of possession without a hearing.
• Texas discovery levels: what Level 1, 2 and 3 actually limitEvery Texas case is governed by a discovery control plan, and the plaintiff has to name the level in the first paragraph of the petition. Here's what each level allows.
• Responding to written discovery in Texas: thirty days, and the deadlines that bite hardestTexas gives 30 days to respond to interrogatories, requests for production and requests for admission. Miss the last one and the requests are admitted with no court order required.
• Amending pleadings in Texas: the seven-day line and the substitute-pleading ruleTexas lets parties amend freely until seven days before trial. After that, leave is required — but Rule 63 says the judge must grant it unless the other side shows surprise.
• Dismissal for want of prosecution in Texas: the notice, the thirty days, and the seventy-five-day cliffRule 165a lets a Texas court dismiss a case for failing to appear or for missing time standards — and gives 30 days to move for reinstatement, on a standard the rule spells out.
• The Texas special appearance: why Rule 120a has to be filed before anything elseRule 120a lets a defendant contest personal jurisdiction in Texas — but it must be sworn and filed before any other plea, and every non-complying appearance is a general appearance.
• Texas TROs and temporary injunctions: fourteen days, a bond with two sureties, and a trial settingA Texas TRO expires in 14 days, requires a bond with two or more sureties before it issues, and every temporary injunction order must set the case for trial on the merits.
• Texas summary judgment under the rewritten Rule 166a: every deadline now runs forward from filingThe amended Rule 166a replaced Texas's old 21-days-before-hearing rule. The response is due 21 days after the motion is filed, the reply 7 days after that, and the title of the motion is now mandatory.
• The Texas nonsuit: an absolute right, with four things it does not get you out ofTexas Rule 162 lets a plaintiff take a nonsuit any time before introducing all its evidence, without a court order — but it does not defeat a counterclaim, pending sanctions, fees, or costs.
• The Texas motion for new trial: 30 days to file, 75 days to be overruled by silenceTexas Rule 329b gives 30 days from the signing of the judgment to file a motion for new trial — and overrules it automatically at 75 days if the court never signs an order.
• The Texas motion to transfer venue: file it first, or you have waived itTexas Rule 86 waives an objection to improper venue unless it is filed before or with the defendant's first pleading — and Rule 87 requires 45 days' notice of the hearing.
• Collecting a Texas judgment: thirty days, then execution — and wages are mostly off the tableTexas execution cannot issue until thirty days after a final judgment is signed, and the debtor gets to designate which property is levied on first.

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