§ 85.001.Definitions

Four definitions, and the fourth is the one the chapter turns on.

"Harassing behavior" means conduct by the defendant directed specifically toward the claimant, including following the claimant, that is reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass them.

"Directed specifically toward the claimant" is the first limit. Conduct aimed at the world, or at a group, is outside. Stalking is a course of conduct pointed at one person, and the definition says so.

"Reasonably likely" makes the test objective. The question is what the conduct was likely to do, not what the claimant felt — which protects a defendant from an unusually sensitive complainant and a claimant from having to prove their own distress to establish the behaviour.

The six verbs run from serious to mild, and "annoy" and "embarrass" at the low end are notably undemanding. The chapter’s severity comes from the proof provision rather than from this definition, which supplies the raw material.

"Including following the claimant" names the paradigm case without confining the definition to it.

The other three definitions are structural. "Claimant" reaches a plaintiff, counterclaimant, cross-claimant, or third-party plaintiff, and where damages are sought on another person’s behalf it covers both that person and the party suing. "Defendant" is any party from whom recovery is sought. "Family" takes its meaning from the Family Code.

The Family Code borrowing matters because the proof provision requires the conduct to have caused fear of harm or death to the claimant or a member of their family or household.