§ 13.001.Dismissal of Action

The screening provision for claims filed without payment of costs.

A court in which an affidavit of inability to pay under Rule 145 has been filed may dismiss the action on finding that the allegation of poverty in the affidavit is false, or that the action is frivolous or malicious.

The two grounds are different in kind. The first is about the affidavit; the second is about the claim.

The provision exists because filing fees do more than raise revenue. They impose a cost on filing, and a litigant excused from that cost faces no financial discouragement from bringing a case worth nothing.

Three considerations guide the frivolousness finding, and the court may weigh them: whether the action’s realistic chance of ultimate success is slight; whether the claim has no arguable basis in law or in fact; and whether it is clear that the party cannot prove a set of facts in support of the claim.

The second is the most demanding of the three, and it is the one drawn from federal practice — a claim with an arguable basis is not frivolous even if it will probably fail.

The first, by contrast, asks about the chance of success, which is a lower bar and sits uneasily beside the second. A court applying the section is not required to use any particular one.

Subsection (c) allows dismissal before or after service of process.

That is the practical heart of the section. A claim can be ended before a defendant is served, so a person against whom a frivolous suit is filed need never be drawn into it.