§ 11.104.Notice to Office of Court Administration; Dissemination of List

The publication provision, and it is what allows clerks across Texas to enforce an order they never saw entered.

A clerk shall provide the Office of Court Administration a copy of any prefiling order not later than the 30th day after the order is signed.

The office shall post on its Internet website a list of vexatious litigants subject to prefiling orders.

The list is the practical answer to a statewide order. An order from a district court binds every court in Texas, and no clerk could enforce that without a central record to check.

On request of a person designated a vexatious litigant, the list shall indicate whether that person has filed an appeal of the designation.

That is a small but meaningful protection. A name on a public list carries a conclusion; the annotation lets the person show the conclusion is under challenge. It is available on request, so the litigant must ask.

Removal is tightly controlled. The office may not remove a name unless it receives a written order from the court that entered the prefiling order or from an appellate court.

Two sentences then limit what a removal accomplishes. An order of removal affects only a prefiling order entered by the same court, and a court of appeals decision reversing a prefiling order affects only the validity of the order entered by the reversed court.

So multiple orders must be undone one at a time. A litigant designated by courts in three counties who succeeds against one remains on the list under the other two — and the list is public throughout.