§ 30.014.Pleadings Must Contain Partial Identification Information

An identification requirement, and the number of digits is the design.

In a civil action — including a probate or guardianship proceeding — filed in a district court, county court, statutory county court, statutory probate court, or the business court, each party or the party's attorney shall include in its initial pleading the last three numbers of the party's driver's license number, if issued, and the last three numbers of the party's social security number, if issued.

Three digits, not the full numbers. That is enough to distinguish between people sharing a name — the recurring problem in judgment records, where a lien can attach to the wrong person's property — while disclosing far too little to be useful for identity theft in a public filing.

The conditional phrasing accommodates parties who have neither number. A party with no driver's license supplies nothing under the first subdivision.

Subsection (b) supplies enforcement. On its own motion or a party's, the court may order the initial pleading amended to contain the information, and may find a party in contempt for not amending as ordered.

The failure is curable. Contempt follows disobedience of an amendment order, not the original omission, and no pleading is struck.

The business court was added by the 2021 legislation creating it. The section pairs with the current-address provision that follows.