§ 15.017.Libel, Slander, or Invasion of Privacy

Defamation and privacy suits get their own mandatory venue rule, and the section says they can only be maintained in the counties it names.

The choices are the county where the plaintiff resided when the cause of action accrued; the county where the defendant resided when suit was filed; the county of residence of any of several defendants; or the domicile of any corporate defendant. The selection is expressly at the election of the plaintiff.

Note that the two residence tests are measured at different moments. The plaintiff's residence is fixed at accrual; the defendant's at filing. That is a deliberate departure from the general rule that all venue facts are assessed at accrual.

The consequence is worth seeing. A defendant who moves counties between the statement and the lawsuit changes the plaintiff's options, which is the one place in this chapter where a party can affect venue by relocating.

The provision matters because defamation claims could otherwise be brought anywhere a statement was published — which, for anything online, means every county in Texas. Confining suit to the parties' home counties removes forum shopping from a claim particularly exposed to it.

The words "and can only be maintained" are unusually strong, and they mark this as mandatory venue enforceable by mandamus rather than a preference.

Read it alongside the one-year limitations period for these claims, and alongside the Defamation Mitigation Act, which requires a request for a correction before exemplary damages are available. Defamation in Texas is hemmed in at several points: a short deadline, a narrow choice of court, a pre-suit demand, and an anti-SLAPP motion waiting on the other side.