§ 17.027.Preparation and Service

A short procedural authorisation with four subsections, three of which give nothing away.

Subsection (a) is the grant: the plaintiff or their attorney may prepare the appropriate citation for the defendant. Traditionally the clerk prepares and issues citation, and this permits the party to do the preparatory work.

The remaining subsections take back any latitude that might suggest. The citation must be in the form prescribed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure; it shall be served in the manner prescribed by law; and the plaintiff or attorney shall comply with the applicable Rules governing preparation and issuance.

So the section changes who does the typing, not what the document must say. A citation prepared by a party and defective in form is as defective as one prepared by anyone else, and defective citation is a standard ground for setting aside a default judgment.

The practical value is speed. A plaintiff filing near the end of a limitations period, or needing service before a hearing, is not waiting on a clerk’s office to draft the document.

Note that preparation is not issuance. The clerk still issues the citation under seal; the section allows the party to prepare it for issuance.

Subsection (e) was repealed in 1997 and the numbering was left intact, which is why the section ends where it does.