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Tex. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 42.001

This is the official text of Tex. Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 42.001, part of Texas’s Civil Practice and Remedies Code — sets procedural rules and available remedies for civil lawsuits.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

§ 42.001. DEFINITIONS.

Official statutory text

In this chapter:

(1) "Claim" means a request, including a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim, to recover monetary damages.

(2) "Claimant" means a person making a claim.

(3) "Defendant" means a person from whom a claimant seeks recovery on a claim, including a counterdefendant, cross-defendant, or third-party defendant.

(4) "Governmental unit" means the state, a unit of state government, or a political subdivision of this state.

(5) "Litigation costs" means money actually spent and obligations actually incurred that are directly related to the action in which a settlement offer is made. The term includes:

(A) court costs;

(B) reasonable deposition costs;

(C) reasonable fees for not more than two testifying expert witnesses; and

(D) reasonable attorney's fees.

(6) "Settlement offer" means an offer to settle or compromise a claim made in compliance with Section 42.003.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.