Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Courts Service and Proof of Service Rules

CRITICALCivil cases

Substitute or alternate service requires at least two attempts, including attempts in both the morning and afternoon, spaced at least two hours apart.

IT IS ORDERED that SUBSTITUTE or ALTERNATE SERVICE of process pursuant to Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 501.2 (e) 510.4(c) (C) shall not be authorized by the court until service agency shows due diligence of no less than two (2) attempts of service and including two (2) different times of day in morning and afternoon. Service attempts may be made on same day but not less than 2 hours between each service attempt.

CRITICALCivil cases

A complete, signed, and verified copy of the answers must be delivered to the attorney within 30 days after service of the interrogatories.

deliver a complete, signed, and a verified copy of your answers to the undersigned attorney within 30 days after service of these interrogatories on you;

CRITICALCivil cases

Substitute or alternate service will not be authorized unless the serving agency demonstrates due diligence at all of the defendant’s county addresses, including attempts on separate days and at different times, with at least one morning attempt and one afternoon attempt on another day.

IT IS ORDERED that SUBSTITUTE or ALTERNATE SERVICE of process pursuant to Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 501.2(e) and 510.4 (c)-(C) shall not be authorized by the court unless serving agency shows due diligence on at least two occasions at all addresses of the defendant in the county where the premises are located, including attempts on two different days and at two different times of the day at least one attempt on the morning of the day and one attempt in the afternoon of another day. This does not preclude multiple attempts on the same day; however, attempts must be made on separate days as described herein before seeking substitute or alternate service.

CRITICALCivil cases

Applies to

Interrogatory response

The responding party must serve a written response to interrogatories within 30 days after service.

must serve a written response on the requesting party within 30 days after service of the interrogatories

CRITICALCivil cases

Deadline

3 business days

Service

Email to all parties

Exhibits must be served on all parties by email no later than three business days before the hearing or trial.

Exhibits must be e-mailed to all parties and E-Filed to the Court by no later than 3 business days before the Hearing/Trial.

CRITICALCivil cases

Applies to

Request for admission response

An untimely response to a request for admission results in the request being considered admitted without a court order.

if a response to a Request for Admission is not timely served, the request is considered admitted without the necessity of a court order.

CRITICALCivil cases

Continuance motions must be served on the opposing party.

Motions for continuance or Retains should be filed by e-file no later than three business days before your scheduled trial date and must be in writing, served on the opposing party, and may be granted or denied at the discretion of the court.

CRITICALCivil cases

Applies to

Notice of hearing

Unless evidence shows why ex parte proceedings are necessary, notice of the hearing must be sent to the debtor.

These Justice Courts, absent an evidence based showing as to why ex parte is necessary, will require notice of hearing be sent to the debtor;

CRITICALCivil cases

Applies to

Supplemental discovery response

The interrogatories and production requests remain continuing until the judgment is satisfied, and the defendant must promptly serve supplemental responses when additional responsive information becomes known or available.

These Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents are to be deemed continuing until the judgment has been satisfied in full. If additional information within the scope of an Interrogatory or Request for Production of Documents becomes known or available to the Defendant after Defendant serves his/her responses upon the Judgment Creditor, Defendant shall promptly furnish such additional information to the Judgment Creditor by way of supplemental responses.

CRITICALCivil cases

Applies to

Request for production response

The responding party must serve a written response to a request for production within 30 days after service of the request.

must serve a written response on the requesting party within 30 days after service of the request

CRITICALCivil cases

The Receiver must wait 14 days after serving the specified protected-property notices before disbursing funds or selling property; if service is by mail, the waiting period is 17 days, and an asserted exemption requires the Judgment Debtor's written consent or a court order.

Receiver must not disburse funds to Judgment Creditor or sell property within 14 days after serving Judgment Debtor with the Notice of Protected Property Rights, the Instructions for Protected Property Claim Form, and the Protected Property Claim Form approved by the Supreme Court of Texas, or within 17 days if service was by mail. If Judgment Debtor asserts an exemption, Receiver may only disburse funds to Judgment Creditor or sell property with Judgment Debtor's written consent or a court order.

WARNINGCivil cases

Applies to

Post judgment discovery request

The requesting party must allow at least 30 days for a response to a post-judgment discovery request.

The party requesting discovery must give the responding party at least 30 days to respond to a post-judgment discovery request.

WARNINGCivil cases

The judge may approve or deny any alternate-service request in his discretion.

The Judge reserves the right to approve or deny any alternate service request(s) based on his discretion.