§ 98.001.Definition

A borrowing definition, and the technique carries consequences worth spelling out.

"Trafficking of persons" means conduct that constitutes an offense under Chapter 20A, Penal Code.

That chapter covers both labour and sex trafficking, including trafficking of adults by force, fraud, or coercion, trafficking of children, and continuous trafficking of persons — so the civil claim reaches the whole of it without restating any of it.

The definition follows the criminal law automatically. The Legislature has amended Chapter 20A repeatedly, broadening what counts as trafficking, and each amendment expands this civil claim the same day without a word being changed here.

That is the principal advantage of the technique, and it is why the same drafting appears in the compelled prostitution, methamphetamine, and malicious solicitation chapters.

No conviction is required. The test is conduct that constitutes the offence, which a civil court decides on the preponderance standard rather than beyond reasonable doubt.

That matters enormously in practice. Trafficking prosecutions are difficult, victims are often unwilling or unable to testify in a criminal case, and a claimant whose trafficker was never charged is not thereby left without a remedy.

The cost of the technique is that the civil claim inherits the criminal definitions whole, including their limits. Conduct that is exploitative but falls outside Chapter 20A is outside this chapter too.

The chapter’s liberal construction provision is the counterweight, directing that the whole be read to protect persons from trafficking and provide adequate remedies.