Texas Rules of Civil Procedure: Service of Process

Service of process in Texas is governed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which require an authorized server to deliver the citation and petition to the defendant using a permitted method, then file proof with the court before the case can move forward. The Texas service of process rules set out who may serve, which delivery methods are valid, how service differs depending on who the defendant is, and what proof the court needs before it will act on the case.

Who Can Serve Process

Under Rule 103, service may be carried out by a sheriff, a constable, any person at least 18 years old who is authorized by written court order, or a process server certified through the Judicial Branch Certification Commission (JBCC).¹ An attorney involved in the case cannot personally serve process.

Choosing the right server matters more than people expect. A return of service filed by someone who lacked authority to serve is invalid, and the court will treat it as though service never happened. If a plaintiff has trouble locating the defendant or standard service keeps failing, the court can authorize a specific person to make service, but only after the plaintiff shows what efforts have already been attempted.

Methods of Service

Texas provides several ways to get legal papers into a defendant’s hands, but they aren’t all equally available. Personal delivery and mail are the starting points. Alternative methods and publication come into play only after standard options have been tried.

Personal Delivery

Personal service is the primary method. Under Rule 106(a)(1), the server delivers a copy of the citation and petition directly to the defendant in person and notes the date of delivery on the citation at the time it is handed over.² If the defendant refuses to take the papers, the server can leave them in the defendant’s presence, and that still counts as valid service.

Personal delivery gives the court the clearest proof that the defendant actually knew about the lawsuit. The server then documents the date, time, and location in a return of service filed with the court.

Certified Mail

Rule 106(a)(2) allows service by registered or certified mail with return receipt requested.² The court clerk or an authorized person mails the citation and petition, and the defendant must sign the return receipt to confirm delivery. The signed receipt becomes part of the court file.

The weakness is obvious. A defendant who suspects a lawsuit can simply refuse to sign. An unsigned return receipt means service is incomplete, and the plaintiff has to try another method.

Alternative and Electronic Service

When personal delivery and mail have both been attempted without success, Rule 106(b) lets the plaintiff ask the court to authorize an alternative method. The plaintiff must file a sworn statement listing where the defendant can probably be found and describing specifically what service attempts were made and why they failed.² Without that showing, the court won’t grant the motion.

If the court approves, it can authorize leaving copies with someone older than 16 at the location identified in the sworn statement, posting documents on the defendant’s door, or any other method the court finds reasonably likely to give the defendant actual notice.²

Since 2020, Rule 106(b)(2) expressly includes electronic service, including email and social media, as a permissible alternative when the evidence shows it will be reasonably effective.² To get a court to authorize social media service, the plaintiff typically needs to demonstrate that the account actually belongs to the defendant and that the defendant actively uses it. A dormant profile won’t cut it. Courts look for evidence of recent activity on the platform before concluding that electronic delivery is reasonably calculated to provide notice.

Service by Publication

Publication is the last resort, used when a defendant genuinely cannot be found despite diligent searching. Under Rule 109, a court can authorize the plaintiff to publish a citation in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the lawsuit was filed. The notice must run once a week for four consecutive weeks.³ This method shows up most often in divorce cases and property disputes where the other party has disappeared.

Publication service carries real risk for both sides. A defendant served by publication has until 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after 42 days from the date the citation was issued to file an answer, rather than the standard 20-day window.⁴ A judgment entered after publication service can often be challenged later, since the defendant may credibly argue they never actually saw the notice. A motion for new trial must be filed within 30 days after the judgment is signed under Rule 329b, but a defendant who had no actual notice may pursue a bill of review or other equitable relief beyond that window.⁵

Service on Different Types of Defendants

The rules for getting papers to the right person depend on who the defendant is. Individuals, businesses, and out-of-state defendants each have their own requirements, and mixing them up is one of the more common ways service gets challenged.

Individuals

Serving an individual follows the standard methods under Rule 106: personal delivery first, then certified mail, then court-approved alternatives if those fail.²

Certain individuals require special handling. Under Rule 108, minors and legally incapacitated persons must be served through a parent, guardian, or legal representative.³ If the defendant is incarcerated, service must be coordinated through the correctional facility’s administration. For defendants who are actively evading service, courts expect the plaintiff to make multiple attempts at different times and locations before granting alternative methods, and the sworn statement supporting the motion needs to lay out those efforts in detail.

Corporations and Partnerships

Every corporation or foreign filing entity doing business in Texas must maintain a registered agent to receive legal papers.⁶ Service on a corporation starts with delivering the citation and petition to that registered agent under Texas Business Organizations Code Section 5.201.⁷ If the registered agent cannot be found, service may go to an officer or director of the company.

Partnerships follow a similar pattern. Under Texas Business Organizations Code Section 5.255, each general partner of a limited partnership and each partner of a general partnership is considered an agent for service of process as a matter of law.⁸ When individual partners are also named as defendants, each one must be served separately.

When an entity has failed to maintain a registered agent, or when two unsuccessful attempts have been made on different business days to serve the agent, service can be completed through the Texas Secretary of State under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 17.044.⁹ The Secretary of State then forwards the documents to the entity’s last known address by certified mail.

Out-of-State Defendants

Texas’s long-arm statute, found in Chapter 17 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, allows courts to exercise jurisdiction over nonresidents who do business in the state, commit a tort in whole or in part here, or enter into contracts to be performed in Texas.¹⁰

When a nonresident defendant hasn’t designated a resident agent and doesn’t maintain a regular place of business in Texas, the Secretary of State serves as the agent for service of process. The plaintiff files duplicate copies with the Secretary of State, including the nonresident’s home or office address, and the Secretary of State immediately mails a copy to the defendant by certified mail, return receipt requested.⁹

There’s a proof requirement here that trips up plaintiffs. To establish jurisdiction over a nonresident served through the Secretary of State, the court record must include a certificate from the Secretary of State confirming that it forwarded the process to the defendant. Without that certificate, the trial court lacks jurisdiction over the defendant, and a judgment can unravel years later.

Deadline to Respond After Service

Once a defendant is served, the clock starts running. For personal delivery or certified mail, the citation directs the defendant to file a written answer by 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after 20 days from the date of service.¹¹ For service by publication, that window extends to 42 days from the date the citation was issued.⁴

These deadlines are not flexible. A defendant who misses the answer deadline without good cause faces a default judgment. If you’ve been served, treat the answer deadline as the most important date on your calendar.

Return of Service and Default Judgments

Completing service is only half the job. The server must also file a return of service with the court, a sworn or verified document proving that service happened. Rule 107 lays out exactly what the return must include.¹²

The required information covers the cause number, the case name, the court, who was served, the address, the date and time, and how delivery was made, along with details specific to the server, such as a certified process server’s JBCC identification number and certification expiration date.¹² For mail service, the return must include the signed return receipt. For court-ordered alternative methods, proof must be made in whatever manner the court’s order specified.

The return can be sworn before a notary or signed under penalty of perjury. If it is not endorsed on the citation itself, it must still be filed with the court as a separate document.¹²

Under Rule 107(h), no default judgment can be granted until the return of service has been on file with the clerk for at least ten days, not counting the day of filing or the day of judgment.³ If the return is incomplete, contains errors, or was never filed, the court will not enter a default judgment and may require the plaintiff to re-serve the defendant. Texas courts enforce this strictly. In Wilson v. Dunn, the Texas Supreme Court set aside a default judgment because the plaintiff failed to properly verify the motion for substitute service or support it with an affidavit, even though the defendant had actual notice of the lawsuit.¹³

Diligence and the Statute of Limitations

Filing a lawsuit before the deadline means nothing without follow-through on service. Under Texas law, a plaintiff’s case is timely only if the defendant is served before the statute of limitations expires, or, if service comes later, the plaintiff can show continuous diligence in attempting service from the time limitations ran out until service was finally achieved.¹⁴

The standard is whether the plaintiff acted the way an ordinarily prudent person would under the same circumstances. Courts examine how long it took to get the citation issued, what efforts were made to locate and serve the defendant, and whether any gaps between attempts have a reasonable explanation.¹⁴ When a substantial delay occurs after limitations has run, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to explain every lapse. An unexplained two-month gap between service attempts can demonstrate lack of diligence as a matter of law, meaning the court can dismiss the case without a trial on the merits.

File your lawsuit early enough to leave room for service problems, and if service does fail, document every attempt and pursue the next one quickly.

Waiver of Service

A defendant who knows about the lawsuit and doesn’t want to drag out the service process can waive it entirely. Rule 119 allows a defendant to file a written memorandum accepting service and acknowledging receipt of the plaintiff’s petition.³ This saves time and eliminates the expense of hiring a process server or sheriff.

For the waiver to be valid, it must be signed by the defendant (or the defendant’s authorized agent or attorney), sworn to before a proper officer other than an attorney in the case, and filed with the court.³ The memorandum must also acknowledge receipt of a copy of the plaintiff’s petition. In divorce cases, the waiver must additionally include the defendant’s mailing address.

Signing a waiver means giving up the right to challenge the sufficiency of service, but it does not admit fault or agree with anything in the plaintiff’s petition. The defendant still has the same deadline to file an answer, and failure to respond within that window can lead to a default judgment just as it would after formal service.

1
South Texas College of Law Library. Rule 103 – Who May Serve (2024)
2
South Texas College of Law Library. Rule 106 – Method of Service (2020)
3
Texas Courts. Texas Rules of Civil Procedure – March 1, 2026
4
Texas Courts. Citation Publication – Civil Once Each for Four Consecutive Weeks
5
South Texas College of Law Library. Rule 329b – Time for Filing Motions (1981)
6
Office of the Texas Secretary of State. Registered Agents
7
State of Texas. Texas Business Organizations Code Section 5.201 – Designation of Registered Agent and Registered Office
8
State of Texas. Texas Business Organizations Code Section 5.255 – Agent for Service of Process, Notice, or Demand as Matter of Law
9
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 17.044 – Substituted Service on Secretary of State
10
Justia. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 17 – Parties, Citation, Long-Arm Jurisdiction
11
South Texas College of Law Library. Rule 99 – Issuance and Form of Citation (2021)
12
South Texas College of Law Library. Rule 107 – Return of Service (2024)
13
Case Law Summary. Wilson v. Dunn, 800 S.W.2d 833
14
Supreme Court of Texas. Texas State University v. Hannah R. Tanner