§ 35.007.Fees

A fee provision, and it continues the chapter’s equivalence principle into the clerk’s office.

A person filing a foreign judgment shall pay to the clerk the amount as otherwise provided by law for filing suit in the courts of this state.

The fee is the filing fee for a lawsuit, which is a deliberate choice — the creditor is not filing a suit, but the filing produces an enforceable Texas judgment, and the clerk’s office does the work of a new case.

Charging the suit fee also prevents an obvious asymmetry. A creditor who sued on the judgment instead would pay the same amount, so the streamlined route is not cheaper as well as faster.

Filing fees are due and payable at the time of filing.

No deferral is contemplated, which fits a procedure that is complete at the counter.

Fees for other enforcement proceedings are as provided by law for judgments of the courts of this state.

So execution, garnishment and turnover cost what they cost for any Texas judgment. Nothing about the judgment’s origin makes enforcing it more expensive.

The section is short because the equivalence does the work. Once a filed foreign judgment is a Texas judgment for procedural purposes, its fees follow automatically.

The costs are worth weighing against the alternative route. The chapter preserves the creditor’s right to sue on the judgment instead, and that action carries its own fees and a good deal more time.