§ 90.006.Serving Reports

The service deadline, and it is short.

In an action filed on or after the chapter's effective date, the report must be served on each defendant not later than the 30th day after the date that defendant answers or otherwise enters an appearance.

Thirty days per defendant, running from that defendant's appearance. Compare the medical liability chapter's expert report, which allows 120 days from each defendant's answer — this is a quarter of that.

The difference reflects what the report is. A medical liability expert report addresses standards of care, breach, and causation as to a particular defendant. This report is a diagnosis of the claimant's own condition, and it should exist before the suit is filed at all.

Subsections (b) and (c) handled the transition. A case pending when the chapter became law whose trial commenced on or before the 90th day after that date required no report unless a mistrial, new trial, or retrial was later ordered. A case whose trial commenced after that day required a report by the earlier of 60 days before trial or 180 days after the chapter became law.

Those provisions are largely spent, but they explain the structure of the MDL section, which turns on whether a report was served within 90 days of the chapter taking effect.