§ 14.009.Submission of Evidence

A written-evidence procedure, and it reduces the need for anyone to attend.

The court may request a person with an admissible document or admissible testimony relevant to the hearing to submit a copy of the document or a written statement stating the substance of the testimony.

The initiative is the court’s. This is not a party’s discovery tool; the judge asks for what is needed.

A written statement must be made under oath or as an unsworn declaration, and a document must be accompanied by a certification executed under oath by an appropriate custodian stating that the copy is correct and addressing any other matter relating to admissibility the court requires.

The certification does the work an appearance would. A custodian who would otherwise attend to authenticate a record does so on paper instead.

A person submitting a statement or document is not required to appear at the hearing.

That is the point of the section. Prison officials, medical staff and custodians would otherwise be pulled from their work to authenticate documents, and the chapter avoids it.

Subsection (e) is the counterweight, and it is the inmate’s protection: the court shall require that the inmate be provided with a copy of each written statement or document not later than 14 days before the hearing.

Fourteen days is meaningful in this setting. An inmate has limited access to writing materials, law library time and mail, and a shorter period would make responding impossible.

"Shall require" makes the disclosure mandatory, so the convenience the section gives everyone else is conditioned on the inmate seeing the material in time.