§ 13.002.Judgment

One sentence with two halves that pull in different directions.

Judgment may be rendered for costs at the conclusion of the action as in other cases, but the state is not liable for any of those costs.

The first half preserves ordinary practice. An affidavit of inability to pay defers costs; it does not forgive them. A party who filed on such an affidavit and loses can still have costs adjudged against them.

That is worth stating because the affidavit can create the opposite impression. A litigant who filed without paying may assume the case carries no cost exposure, and it does.

Whether the judgment is collectable is another question. A party unable to pay at filing is usually no better placed at the end, which is why the second half of the sentence matters.

The state is not liable for any of those costs.

That answers who bears the shortfall. Court reporters, clerks and process servers do work in a case filed on an affidavit, and if the losing party cannot pay, the state does not step in.

The cost falls on the officers and providers who performed the service, which is a real allocation and not a neutral one.

Read with the free transcript provision that follows, the chapter’s approach is consistent. Public expense is extended only where a judge finds it warranted, and never as an automatic consequence of an affidavit.

The section applies "as in other cases", so nothing about the ordinary rules of who bears costs is changed by the affidavit.