The Texas Constitution And The Open Courts Provision

• Published date: 22 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Trials & Appeals & Compensation
• Law Firm: Freeman Law
• Author: Jason Freeman

The Texas Constitution and the Open Courts Provision

The Texas Constitution's open courts provision ensures that litigants receive their day in court. Tex. Const. Ann. art. 1, ' 13

The open courts provision of the Texas Constitution provides that:

All courts shall be open, and every person for an injury done him, in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.

TEX. CONST. art I, ' 13.

The Texas Supreme Court has held that the open courts provision guarantees that "the right to bring a well-established common law cause of action cannot be effectively abrogated by the legislature absent a showing that the legislative basis for the statute outweighs the denial of the constitutionally-guaranteed right of redress." More specifically, the Court has held that a statute's application violates the open courts provision when it bars a common-law cause of action before the litigant has a reasonable opportunity to discover the wrong and bring suit.

What Rights are Guaranteed by the Texas Constitution's Open Courts Provision?

The Texas Supreme Court has recognized at least three separate constitutional guarantees emanating from the constitution's open courts provision:

1. Courts must actually be open and operating, so that, for example, the legislature must place every county within a judicial district.
2. Citizens must have access to those courts unimpeded by unreasonable financial barriers, so that the legislature cannot impose a litigation tax in the form of increased filing fees to enhance the state's general revenue.
3. Meaningful legal remedies must be afforded to citizens, so that the legislature may not abrogate the right to assert a well-established common law cause of action unless the reason for its action outweighs the litigants' constitutional right of redress.

Historical Roots of the Open Courts Provision

The provision's wording and...