Texas Supreme Court Tolls Statutes of Limitations For Civil Cases

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Pursuant to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s declaration of a state of disaster for all Texas counties in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 1, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court issued its Eighth Emergency Order. In the Order, the Court tolled all deadlines for the filing or service of any civil case from March 13, 2020 until June 1, 2020 unless extended by the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. The Eighth Emergency Order does not impact deadlines for perfecting an appeal or other appellate proceedings, but provides that requests for relief from such deadlines “should be directed to the court involved and should be generously granted.”

The Eighth Emergency Order clarifies the prior deadline set in the First Emergency Order, which originally extended the statute of limitations in Texas civil cases until thirty days after the Governor’s state of disaster had been lifted, by tolling civil case filing and service deadlines from March 13, 2020 until specifically June 1, 2020, unless Chief Justice Hecht extends the deadline further. Significantly, the Texas Supreme Court’s new Order provides companies that have potential causes of action with additional time to consider their legal options in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.