§ 11.101.Prefiling Order; Contempt

The chapter’s most consequential remedy, and the one with lasting effect beyond the case.

A court may, on its own motion or the motion of any party, enter an order prohibiting a person from filing, pro se, a new litigation in a court to which the order applies without permission of the appropriate local administrative judge, on finding after notice and hearing as provided by Subchapter B that the person is a vexatious litigant.

The procedural route is wider than the security motion’s. No 90-day deadline applies, no defendant need move, and the court may act alone.

The finding still comes from Subchapter B, so the criteria and the noticed hearing are the same.

A person who disobeys the order is subject to contempt of court.

Subsection (c) preserves review: a litigant may appeal from a prefiling order designating the person a vexatious litigant.

That appeal is worth noting because the chapter withholds one elsewhere. A later refusal of permission to file cannot be appealed and can be challenged only by mandamus. The designation itself, which is the lasting consequence, is appealable.

Subsections (d) and (e) set the geographic reach, and the difference is stark. An order from a justice or constitutional county court applies only to the court that entered it. An order from a district court, a statutory county court, or the business court applies to each court in this state.

A single district judge can therefore close every courthouse in Texas to a person’s pro se filings, subject to permission.

The split tracks the courts’ jurisdiction. Justice and constitutional county courts handle limited local matters; the courts given statewide reach are those of general jurisdiction.