§ 11.002.Applicability

Two exemptions, and they rest on different reasoning.

The chapter does not apply to an attorney licensed to practice law in this state unless the attorney proceeds pro se.

The exemption is for the attorney as advocate, not as litigant. A lawyer filing on behalf of a client is outside the chapter; the same lawyer filing their own suits is inside it, on the same footing as anyone else.

That follows the chapter’s logic rather than creating an exception to it. The definition already confines the chapter to pro se plaintiffs, and this makes clear that a law licence is no protection once the lawyer is representing themselves.

Note what the exemption covers: an attorney licensed in this state. The text does not extend it to an out-of-state lawyer appearing here, though such a lawyer appearing for a client is not proceeding pro se in any event.

The chapter does not apply to a municipal court.

That exemption is about the courts rather than the litigants. Municipal courts handle ordinance violations and traffic matters, and the civil filings the chapter is aimed at do not originate there.

The prefiling machinery would also sit badly there. Permission to file is sought from a local administrative judge of the type of court involved, a structure municipal courts do not share.

A prefiling order from a district court still reaches every court in the state, so the exemption limits where the chapter operates rather than creating a forum in which an existing order can be ignored.