§ 61.0021.Grounds for Attachment in Suit for Sexual Assault

A departure from everything else in the chapter, and it operates notwithstanding any other provision of this code.

Attachment is available to a plaintiff who has general grounds under Sections 61.001(2) and (3) and who institutes a suit for personal injury arising from conduct violating one of four Penal Code provisions: sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child, continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual, or indecency with a child.

Read the cross-reference carefully, because what is omitted is the point. The general grounds required are (2) and (3) — no purpose of harassment, and probable loss — not (1), the requirement that the defendant be justly indebted.

So the debt element disappears. There is no debt in a personal injury suit for child sexual assault, and requiring one would have made attachment unavailable in exactly these cases.

The specific grounds are replaced rather than satisfied. A plaintiff need not show that the defendant is fleeing, hiding or converting assets; the nature of the suit supplies the ground.

The amount is set by a different measure too. A court may issue the writ in an amount the court determines to be appropriate to provide for the counseling and medical needs of the plaintiff.

That is a needs-based figure, not a debt-based one, and it is fixed by the court rather than pleaded by the plaintiff.

The purpose is plain from the measure chosen. A child who has been assaulted needs treatment now, and a judgment years later does not pay for it — so the section secures the cost of care while the case proceeds.

The affidavit section carries a matching subsection, requiring the demand to be stated as the estimated cost of counseling and medical needs.