§ 62.021.Who May Issue

Who may issue the writ, and the list is notably shorter than its neighbours’.

A district or county court judge or a justice of the peace may issue writs of sequestration returnable to his court.

A judge must issue it. The attachment and garnishment chapters both allow a clerk to issue their writs; this one does not.

That is the chapter’s most significant procedural difference, and it fits what sequestration does. The writ takes the specific property in dispute out of the possessor’s hands, often a vehicle or equipment they depend on.

The judicial requirement pairs with the application section. That section requires specific facts under oath — the nature of the claim, the amount in controversy, and the facts justifying issuance — which is material for a judge to assess rather than a clerk to file.

The business court is absent from the list. Attachment and garnishment were both amended to include it; this section was not, which appears to be an oversight rather than a choice.

"Returnable to his court" ties the writ to the issuing judge’s court, which is where the suit is pending and where a motion to dissolve will be heard.

That matters because of the ten-day deadline. A motion to dissolve must be heard and determined within ten days, and the writ answering to the court with the case is what makes that possible.

Including justices of the peace places the remedy in the smallest civil courts, where disputes over possession of goods are common.