§ 13.004.Inapplicability to Certain Claims

One sentence dividing this chapter from the inmate litigation chapter.

This chapter does not apply to a claim governed by Chapter 14.

The two chapters address overlapping ground, and both would otherwise apply to the same claim — a suit filed on an affidavit of inability to pay by a person who happens to be an inmate.

The inmate chapter is far more demanding. It requires an affidavit describing every previous unrepresented action, exhaustion of the prison grievance system within a 31-day filing window, a certified trust account statement, and payment of fees drawn from that account.

Without this section a litigant could argue for the lighter regime, since this chapter’s dismissal provision says nothing about those requirements.

The exclusion is drawn by claim, not by person. A claim governed by the inmate chapter is excluded — and that chapter has its own scope provision, which excludes actions brought under the Family Code.

So an inmate’s family law case is outside the inmate chapter and inside this one, which is a consequence worth tracing rather than assuming.

Note what the section does not do: it does not exclude the civil commitment chapter. That chapter was added later and carries its own scope provision, and the reference here was not updated.

The dismissal grounds in the three chapters are nonetheless closely parallel, and each cross-references the others when counting a litigant’s previous frivolous filings.