§ 17.069.Chairman's Certificate

The evidentiary provision, and it solves a proof problem the scheme would otherwise create.

On request of any party and payment of a $25 fee, the chairman shall certify the occurrence or performance of any duty, act, omission, transaction, or happening contemplated or required by the subchapter, including the wording of any registered letter received.

The certificate is prima facie evidence of the statements it contains, as is the certified wording of a registered letter.

Without it, a plaintiff would have to prove what a state agency did — that the chairman received the process, mailed it, and to what address — by calling someone from that office. The certificate substitutes a document.

"Any party" matters. The defendant may request one too, and a certificate showing the process was mailed to the wrong address is as useful to a defendant attacking a default judgment as the opposite is to a plaintiff defending one.

Prima facie is not conclusive. The certificate establishes the facts unless contradicted, and pairs with the rebuttable presumption of receipt in the mailing section.

Subsection (b) lets the chairman certify to the court that issued the process or to another court where an action is pending against the same defendant.