A motion to strike in Texas asks the court to remove specific material from the record so the judge cannot rely on it and the jury never sees it. The targets vary: flawed summary judgment evidence, undisclosed discovery, unqualified expert reports, defective pleadings, or an improper intervention. What you file, when you file it, and how specifically you describe the material all decide whether the motion is granted and whether you keep the issue alive if you need to appeal.
What a Motion to Strike Can Target
There is no single Texas rule that governs every motion to strike. The right authority depends on what you are attacking. Summary judgment affidavits run through Rule 166a. Late-disclosed evidence and witnesses run through Rule 193.6. Expert opinions run through Rule of Evidence 702 and the Robinson standard. Defective pleadings run through Rules 90 and 91 as special exceptions. Interventions run through Rule 60. Picking the wrong rule, or citing none at all, is one of the fastest ways to have a motion denied on the papers.
Striking Summary Judgment Evidence
Summary judgment is where motions to strike come up most often. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a was amended effective March 1, 2026. The nonmovant now must “produce any evidence in support of the response,” and the older language that packaged objections into the response was removed.1Supreme Court of Texas. Misc. Docket No. 26-9012 – Final Approval of Amendments to Rule 166a
The rule still requires that defects in the form of affidavits or declarations be “specifically pointed out by objection,” which gives the filer a chance to fix them.1Supreme Court of Texas. Misc. Docket No. 26-9012 – Final Approval of Amendments to Rule 166a If hearsay, unauthenticated documents, or conclusory statements appear in the movant’s evidence, file a motion to strike (or an objection) identifying the exact exhibit or paragraph. Vague challenges will not work. Prior Rule 166a barred “conclusory motions or general no-evidence challenges,” and that principle carries into the amended rule.2South Texas College of Law. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a – Summary Judgment (1997)
One powerful variant is the sham affidavit doctrine. In Lujan v. Navistar, the Texas Supreme Court held that a trial court can disregard an affidavit that contradicts the same person’s earlier deposition testimony without explanation. Striking that affidavit before the hearing can eliminate the opposing party’s only evidence on a critical element.
Excluding Undisclosed Discovery
Rule 193.6 imposes an automatic penalty for discovery failures: a party who does not timely disclose evidence or identify a witness cannot use that material at trial or in a summary judgment proceeding.3South Texas College of Law. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.6 – Failing to Timely Respond – Effect on Trial Exclusion is automatic once the opposing party objects, either through a pretrial motion or at the moment the evidence is offered. You do not have to file a motion to compel first.
Once you object, the burden shifts. The party trying to use the late evidence must show either good cause for the failure or that the late disclosure will not cause unfair surprise or prejudice. Courts have held that attorney inadvertence, the “importance” of the evidence, or the incompetence of prior counsel does not establish good cause.3South Texas College of Law. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.6 – Failing to Timely Respond – Effect on Trial Even when that burden is not met, the court can grant a continuance to allow supplementation instead of permanently excluding the evidence.
Challenging Expert Testimony
Under Texas Rule of Evidence 702, an expert may testify only if their specialized knowledge will help the jury understand the evidence or decide a factual dispute.4Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Rules of Evidence – Rule 702 The Texas Supreme Court fleshed out that standard in E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. v. Robinson, holding that expert testimony must be both relevant and reliable, and identifying six non-exclusive reliability factors: testability, degree of subjectivity, peer review, error rate, general acceptance in the field, and non-judicial uses of the technique.5vLex United States. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Inc. v. Robinson
A motion to strike, sometimes called a Robinson challenge, targets an expert’s entire report or specific opinions inside it. If the expert lacks credentials in the relevant field, relies on flawed methodology, or draws conclusions from insufficient data, the motion asks the court to exclude some or all of the testimony. In product liability and medical malpractice cases where the claim rests on expert proof, a successful challenge can end the case.
Defective Pleadings and Interventions
Texas has no direct equivalent to Federal Rule 12(f). To attack a defective pleading, use special exceptions under Rules 90 and 91. Rule 90 waives any pleading defect, in form or substance, unless the opposing party files a written exception before the charge is read to the jury or before judgment in a bench trial. Rule 91 requires the special exception to identify the pleading being challenged and describe the defect “intelligibly and with particularity.”6Texas Judicial Branch. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 91 When a court sustains special exceptions, the usual remedy is an order to amend rather than dismissal. Only when the party cannot cure the defect, or refuses to try, does the court move toward striking the claim.
Interventions have their own path. Under Rule 60, anyone may intervene by filing a pleading, but the intervention is “subject to being stricken by the court for sufficient cause on the motion of any party.” Courts look at whether the intervention was timely, whether it will complicate the case by multiplying the issues, and whether the intervenor could protect their interests through a separate suit. An intervention filed close to trial or one that pulls in unrelated claims is a strong candidate for a motion to strike.
Drafting and Filing the Motion
Precision is the whole game. Identify the exact material you want removed: page and line numbers of deposition testimony, particular paragraphs of a pleading, numbered exhibits. Quote the offending language or attach the document. Judges will not hunt through the record, and vague motions fail for that reason alone.
Put a standard case style at the top (cause number, court designation, party names) and cite the specific rules that support the request. For an expert challenge, cite Rule of Evidence 702 and the Robinson factors. For late-disclosed evidence, cite Rule 193.6. For a defective affidavit, cite the applicable subsection of Rule 166a. Close with a prayer asking the court to “strike and disregard” the identified material for all purposes.
Include a proposed order as a separate document. It gives the judge a ready form to sign and makes sure the final order tracks the relief you asked for.
For discovery-related motions, Rule 191.2 requires a certificate of conference: a statement that you made a reasonable effort to resolve the dispute with opposing counsel before asking the court to step in.7South Texas College of Law. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 191.2 – Conference Some local rules extend the requirement to non-discovery motions. Omitting the certificate when it is required can get the motion denied on procedure before a judge reads the substance. Check the court’s local rules.
Filing runs through eFileTexas, the mandatory electronic filing system for attorneys in civil cases across district and county courts.8eFileTexas.Gov. Official E-Filing System for Texas After uploading, serve all parties through the electronic service provider, then contact the court coordinator for a hearing date unless the judge accepts submission on the papers alone.
Timing and Deadlines
No single deadline governs every motion to strike. It depends on what you are challenging.
Under the amended Rule 166a, the math works backward from the motion’s filing date. The nonmovant’s response is due 21 days after the motion is filed, the reply is due 7 days after the response, and the hearing cannot be set earlier than 35 days after filing.1Supreme Court of Texas. Misc. Docket No. 26-9012 – Final Approval of Amendments to Rule 166a A motion to strike summary judgment evidence should be filed within these windows, typically alongside or shortly after the response. Local rules can tighten this. Dallas County district courts, for example, require summary judgment motions at least 90 days before any trial setting.
For expert challenges, the deadline is usually set by the court’s scheduling order rather than a statewide rule. Most scheduling orders set expert-related motion deadlines well before trial, often 30 to 90 days out. Missing that deadline can mean the testimony comes in no matter its quality.
For undisclosed discovery under Rule 193.6, the objection must come either through a pretrial motion to exclude or at the moment the evidence is offered. There is no fixed number of days in advance, but waiting until mid-trial to raise something you could have raised earlier risks a waiver finding.
Preserving the Issue for Appeal
This is where winnable arguments get lost. Under Texas Rule of Evidence 103, a party can claim error in a ruling admitting evidence only if the error affects a substantial right and the party timely objected or moved to strike and stated the specific ground.9Texas Rules of Evidence. Texas Rule of Evidence 103 – Rulings on Evidence A late objection preserves nothing. A vague objection preserves nothing. Introducing the same evidence yourself elsewhere in the trial waives the complaint entirely.
A written motion to strike is one of the clearest ways to preserve error. It creates a record of the specific objection, the grounds, and the ruling. If the judge denies the motion, the denial itself preserves the issue for appellate review, assuming the objection was timely and specific. Without that motion on file, an appellate court will not review the issue, no matter how improper the evidence was. When a court hears an objection outside the jury’s presence and rules the evidence admissible, you do not need to renew the objection when the evidence is later offered to the jury.9Texas Rules of Evidence. Texas Rule of Evidence 103 – Rulings on Evidence
After the Ruling
When the motion is granted, the material is legally excluded. The judge cannot consider it on any pending motion, and it cannot go to the jury. If the court strikes an expert’s entire report, that witness is out: no testimony, no reliance on the findings in a summary judgment motion. Rulings of this size frequently force a settlement or reshape trial strategy for the side that lost the evidence.
When the motion is denied, the evidence stays in. The written motion and the ruling still create the record needed to challenge the decision on appeal. Some judges rule from the bench right after argument; others take the matter under advisement for days or weeks. Once the order is signed and entered, both sides adjust. What looked like a strong claim at filing can become an uphill fight once a critical affidavit or expert report is struck from the record.