§ 38.005.Liberal Construction

One sentence directing how the fee chapter is read: it shall be liberally construed to promote its underlying purposes.

The underlying purpose is access to a remedy. Texas follows the American rule, under which each side bears its own fees unless a statute or contract provides otherwise. This chapter is one of the principal exceptions, and it exists because a claim for a modest sum is worth nothing if pursuing it costs more than it recovers.

Liberal construction operates on the categories in the recovery provision, which lists rendered services, performed labour, furnished material, freight or express overcharges, lost or damaged freight, killed or injured stock, a sworn account, and an oral or written contract.

Those are old categories, and a claim that does not sit plainly in one of them is where the direction does its work.

It does not override the chapter’s express limits, and there are several. The recovery provision was amended in 2021 to define the defendants it reaches — an individual or an organization as defined in the Business Organizations Code — and to exclude several entity types expressly.

The presentment requirement is likewise a condition, not a formality, and liberal construction does not excuse a claimant who never presented the claim or who sued before the 30 days ran.

The exceptions provision states where the chapter does not apply at all, and a direction to construe liberally cannot extend a chapter into territory another section removes from it.

So the direction guides the reading of ambiguous language; it does not rewrite the conditions.