§ 140A.055.Petition for Order Modifying or Setting Aside Demand

The recipient’s remedy, with a short deadline and an unfavourable presumption.

The window is the shorter of two periods: any time before the return date specified in the demand, or not later than the 30th day after the date the demand was served, whichever period is shorter.

The return date usually governs, since demands rarely allow a full month. A recipient who begins gathering documents and then decides to object may find the time gone.

Two people may petition: the person served, and — where the demand seeks a product of discovery — the person from whom the discovery was obtained.

That second party is essential. Material produced in another lawsuit belongs, in a practical sense, to whoever produced it, and they may have privilege or confidentiality interests the recipient will not assert.

Venue lies in the district court of the petitioner’s residence or principal office, or a district court of Travis County — the petitioner’s choice.

The petition must specify each ground relied on, and it may be based on any failure of a demand to comply with this subchapter or on any constitutional or other legal right or privilege.

Subsection (c) is the obstacle. The court shall presume, absent evidence to the contrary, that the attorney general issued the demand in good faith and within the scope of the attorney general’s authority.

So a petitioner arguing overbreadth or bad faith carries the burden from the outset, and an argument built on suspicion alone will not survive.