§ 101.103.Legal Representation

A provision allocating the defence, and the line it draws is geographic.

Subsection (a): the attorney general shall defend each action under this chapter against a governmental unit whose authority and jurisdiction are coextensive with the geographical limits of this state. The attorney general may be fully assisted by counsel provided by an insurance carrier.

"Shall" makes it an obligation, not an option, and centralising the defence of state agencies produces consistency: the same office takes the same positions on the Act’s exceptions and the damages cap across every case in the state.

Subsection (b) sends everyone else elsewhere. A governmental unit with an area of jurisdiction smaller than the entire state shall employ its own counsel according to the organic act under which the unit operates — unless it has relinquished to an insurance carrier the right to defend against the claim.

So a city, county, school district, or hospital district defends itself, through whatever mechanism its own enabling law provides.

The insurance clause reflects how these cases are defended in practice. Local governmental units commonly carry liability coverage or belong to a risk pool, and the policy typically gives the carrier the right and duty to defend. The section accommodates that rather than fighting it.

The word "relinquished" is precise. The unit gives up the right to defend, which is what a liability policy ordinarily requires — and which is why the same policy generally also controls settlement.

The insurance provisions elsewhere in the chapter complete the picture: a governmental unit may carry coverage, and neither its existence nor its amount is admissible or discoverable.