The Texas Supreme Court issued a new emergency order Wednesday that officially stays “any statute-of-limitations deadlines for the filing or service of any civil case” between March 13 and June 1.
The state justices took the action in response to a request by leaders on all sides of the civil trial bar to eliminate trial court discretion in changing filing deadlines as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
The new emergency order – the eighth issued by the state’s highest court regarding the coronavirus – “does not include deadlines for perfecting appeal or for other appellate proceedings, requests for relief from which should be directed to the court involved and should be generously granted.”
The order, signed by all nine Texas justices, amends the third paragraph of the court’s first order issued March 13 by removing discretionary language on limitations.
Leaders from nine different bar associations wrote a letter to
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and the court requesting that the discretionary
language be made mandatory language.
“The use of the term ‘may’ leaves courts, the bar, and parties with no
understanding of how to address the potentially dispositive issue of
limitations that are arising while the nation is in this moment of
unprecedented crisis,” the letter stated. “The practical effect of the language
suggests there could be various application or enforcement of statute of
limitations for cases filed in Dallas County as opposed to filed in Williamson
County, effectively allowing different rules for all 254 counties.”