§ 15.0642.Mandamus

Venue rulings ordinarily cannot be appealed before trial. Mandatory venue is the exception, and this section is why.

A party may apply to an appellate court for a writ of mandamus to enforce the mandatory venue provisions of the chapter.

The deadline is the later of two dates: the 90th day before the date the trial starts, or the 10th day after the date the party receives notice of the trial setting.

The "later of" formulation protects a party who gets a trial setting late. If notice arrives 30 days before trial, the first date has passed but the second gives ten days from notice.

The remedy is confined to mandatory provisions. A ruling on general or permissive venue is not enforceable this way, and must wait for the reversible-error rule to operate after trial. That asymmetry is deliberate: mandatory venue reflects a legislative judgment about where a case belongs, and the Legislature supplied a means of enforcing it before a wasted trial rather than after.

Note that the mandatory provisions are not confined to Subchapter B. The other-mandatory-venue provision imports mandatory rules from across the Texas codes, and a ruling misapplying one of those is equally within reach of this section.

Ordinary mandamus requirements still apply. This section supplies the ground and the deadline; it does not dispense with the appellate rules governing the record, the form of the petition, or the requirement that relief be sought promptly.

A party who lets both dates pass keeps the venue complaint for ordinary appeal, where reversal requires showing the error probably caused an improper judgment — a far harder road than a pre-trial writ.