§ 73.062.Abatement

The enforcement mechanism for the request requirement, and it operates without a court order.

A person against whom a suit is pending who did not receive a written request for a correction may file a plea in abatement not later than the 30th day after filing an original answer.

The suit is automatically abated, in its entirety, without the order of the court, beginning on the 11th day after the plea is filed, if the plea is verified and alleges non-receipt and is not controverted by an affidavit filed before that 11th day.

"Automatically" and "without the order of the court" are unusual. The abatement happens by operation of the statute. The plaintiff's only way to prevent it is to file a controverting affidavit within ten days.

The abatement continues until the 60th day after the written request is served, or a later agreed date — so the plaintiff cures it by doing what the Act required, and the defendant then gets the full correction period.

Subsection (d) prevents the abatement from costing the plaintiff its case: all statutory and judicial deadlines under the rules relating to the suit are stayed during the abatement.

The remedy is abatement, not dismissal. A claimant who skipped the request loses time, not the claim — which fits an Act aimed at producing corrections rather than at defeating suits.