How you get served in Texas — and what each method does to your deadline

Texas service rules answer three separate questions, and it helps to keep them apart: how the papers may be delivered, who may deliver them, and what has to be filed afterward to prove it happened. Rule 106, Rule 103 and Rule 107 each own one of those.

The two default methods

Rule 106(a) gives the plaintiff two methods that need no court permission, unless the citation or a court order directs otherwise:

In person. Delivering to the defendant a copy of the citation showing the delivery date, and a copy of the petition.

Registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, with copies of both documents.

That's the whole of Rule 106(a). Ordinary first-class mail isn't on the list. Neither is email, at this stage, without a court order.

When those don't work — Rule 106(b)

Rule 106(b) is the substituted-service rule, and it opens only after an attempt has failed.

The plaintiff files a motion supported by a statement — sworn before a notary or made under penalty of perjury — that lists any location where the defendant can probably be found and states specifically the facts showing that service was attempted under 106(a)(1) or (a)(2) at the location named, and didn't succeed.

If the court is satisfied, it may authorize service:

• by leaving a copy of the citation and petition with anyone older than sixteen at the location specified in the statement; or
• "in any other manner, including electronically by social media, email, or other technology," that the statement or other evidence shows will be reasonably effective to give the defendant notice of the suit.

That second option is the one people find surprising. A Texas court can authorize service by Facebook message or email — but only on a motion, only after failed attempts under 106(a), and only on evidence that the method will actually reach the defendant.

When the court authorizes an alternative method, Rule 107(f) says proof of service is made in the manner the court ordered, not in the ordinary Rule 107 form.

Who may serve

Rule 103 lists three categories: any sheriff, constable, or other person authorized by law; any person authorized by law or by written court order who is at least eighteen; and any person certified by the Judicial Branch Certification Commission.

Then it draws hard lines:

• No person who is a party to or interested in the outcome of the suit may serve any process in it. A plaintiff cannot serve their own defendant.
• Service by registered or certified mail and citation by publication must, if requested, be made by the clerk of the court where the case is pending.
• Unless a written court order says otherwise, only a sheriff or constable may serve a citation in a forcible entry and detainer action — an eviction — or a writ requiring the actual taking of possession of a person, property or thing.

An order authorizing someone to serve process can be made without a written motion, and no fee may be charged to issue it.

Rule 105 requires the person to whom process is delivered to endorse on it the day and hour it was received, and to execute and return it without delay.

Outside Texas, and outside the country

Rule 108 covers a defendant absent from Texas or a nonresident. The form of notice is the same as for a resident, and it may be served by any disinterested person at least eighteen years old, in the manner Rule 106 provides. The return is completed under Rule 107. The key sentence is the last one: a defendant served this way "shall be required to appear and answer in the same manner and time and under the same penalties as if he had been personally served with a citation within this State" — to the full extent the Constitution allows, in rem or in personam.

Same manner and time. Being served in another state doesn't add days.

Rule 108a covers foreign countries, and offers six routes: the foreign country's own law, a letter rogatory or letter of request, Rule 106(a), an applicable international agreement, diplomatic or consular officials when the U.S. State Department authorizes it, or any other means the court orders that isn't prohibited by international agreement or foreign law. Whatever the route, the method must be "reasonably calculated, under all of the circumstances, to give actual notice of the proceedings to the defendant in time to answer and defend." Proof of service may be made under foreign law, by court order, under Rule 107, or as an applicable international agreement provides.

Publication, and its substitute

Rule 109 allows citation by publication when a party, agent or attorney swears that a defendant's residence is unknown, or the defendant is a transient person and diligent efforts failed to locate them, or the defendant is absent from or a nonresident of Texas and personal Rule 108 service was attempted without success.

The rule puts a duty on the judge, not just the plaintiff: before granting any judgment on publication service, the court trying the case must "inquire into the sufficiency of the diligence exercised."

Rule 109a lets the court do something better where it can. When publication is authorized, the court may on motion prescribe a different method of substituted service if it finds — and recites in the order — that the method would be as likely as publication to give the defendant actual notice. The return must state particularly how service was accomplished and attach any return receipt, returned mail or other evidence of the result. A defendant's failure to respond doesn't invalidate the service, and if the defendant never appears, Rules 244 and 329 apply as though citation had been published — which means an attorney appointed to defend, and a two-year window to seek a new trial.

Waiver and acceptance — Rule 119

A defendant can skip service. Rule 119 lets a defendant accept service, or waive its issuance or service, by a written memorandum signed by the defendant, an authorized agent, or an attorney, after suit is brought.

The formalities are specific. The memorandum must be sworn to before a proper officer other than an attorney in the case, and filed among the papers of the cause. The party signing must be delivered a copy of the plaintiff's petition, and the memorandum must acknowledge receiving it. In a divorce action, the memorandum must also include the defendant's mailing address.

A valid waiver has "the same force and effect as if the citation had been issued and served as provided by law" — including the answer deadline that follows from it.

Rule 121 makes the same point from the other direction: an answer constitutes an appearance and dispenses with the need to issue or serve citation at all.

Where defective service leads — Rule 122

Rule 122 covers what happens when a defendant successfully attacks the service instead of the merits.

If the citation or the service of it is quashed on the defendant's motion, the defendant "shall be deemed to have entered his appearance at ten o'clock a.m. on the Monday next after the expiration of twenty (20) days after the day on which the citation or service is quashed" — the same formula Rule 99 uses, restarted from the day of quashing. From that moment the defendant is deemed duly served, must answer, and can be defaulted if they don't.

So quashing service in Texas buys time. It doesn't end the case.

Rule 118 gives the court discretion, at any time and on terms it thinks just, to allow process or proof of service to be amended — unless it clearly appears that material prejudice would result to the substantial rights of the party the process issued against. Many defects in a return are curable; that's what Rule 118 is for.

Rule 124 states the floor underneath all of it: no judgment may be rendered against a defendant except upon service, acceptance or waiver of process, or an appearance, unless a law or rule expressly provides otherwise.

When the answer clock actually starts

Under Rule 99, the citation directs the defendant to answer by 10:00 a.m. on the Monday next after twenty days have run from the date of service. Every method above feeds the same formula. What changes between methods is the proof, not the deadline — with two exceptions built into the rules themselves: Rule 122's quashing reset, and Rule 119's waiver, which substitutes the date of the filed memorandum for a date of service.

Rule 21a's three-day mail extension doesn't touch any of this. That rule governs papers served after the case is underway and expressly excludes "the citation to be served upon the filing of a cause of action."

Where these rules live

• Rule 103 — Who May Serve
• Rule 105 — Duty of Officer or Person Receiving
• Rule 106 — Method of Service
• Rule 107 — Return of Service
• Rule 108 — Service in Another State
• Rule 108a — Service of Process in Foreign Countries
• Rule 109 — Citation by Publication
• Rule 109a — Other Substituted Service
• Rule 118 — Amendment
• Rule 119 — Acceptance of Service
• Rule 122 — Constructive Appearance
• Rule 124 — No Judgment Without Service

For forms and step-by-step help, the Texas courts point to TexasLawHelp.org. This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice.