§ 27.006.Proof

The record for a TCPA motion is deliberately thin, and this section defines it.

The court considers the pleadings, evidence a court could consider under Rule 166a of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure — the summary judgment rule — and supporting and opposing affidavits stating the facts on which liability or the defense rests.

Pointing to the summary judgment rule imports a settled body of law about what evidence is competent, which spares the parties from litigating admissibility from scratch on a compressed schedule.

Subsection (b) is the only relief from the discovery stay. On a party's motion or the court's own, and on a showing of good cause, the court may allow specified and limited discovery relevant to the motion.

Every word there is a limit: specified, limited, and relevant to the motion rather than to the case. A plaintiff seeking to develop the merits will not get it; one who needs a particular fact to establish a single element sometimes will. Asking also extends the hearing deadline to 120 days, which is a trade worth weighing.