§ 38.006.Exceptions

The chapter's one substantive exception, and it points to where the answer lives instead.

The chapter does not apply to a contract issued by an insurer subject to Title 11 of the Insurance Code, Chapter 541 of that code, the Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act in Subchapter A of Chapter 542, or Subchapter B of Chapter 542.

This is not a rule that policyholders cannot recover fees. Each of the named regimes contains its own fee provision, and those provisions are frequently more favourable than this chapter — Chapter 541 fee awards, and the prompt-payment penalties and fees under Chapter 542, exist precisely to make claims worth pursuing.

The exception avoids two overlapping fee schemes governing the same dispute, with different prerequisites. A policyholder does not need to satisfy presentment and a 30-day wait to reach the fee remedy the Insurance Code already provides.

The scope is worth noting: the exception attaches to a contract issued by an insurer subject to those provisions. A claim against an insurer that does not arise from such a contract is not automatically outside the chapter.

The same litigation carries another Texas-specific feature: actions under the Insurance Code or arising out of an insurance contract are exempt from the TCPA, so the anti-SLAPP motion is unavailable in them.