Landmark Week — March 12, 2026
Texas rewrites summary judgment. The clock starts now.
Effective March 1, 2026, the Texas Supreme Court's amendments to Rule 166a (implementing SB 293) fundamentally restructure how summary judgment motions move through Texas courts. The changes target chronic delays that have plagued civil litigation for decades — motions that sat on dockets for months or years with no resolution.
The new framework imposes three hard deadlines that practitioners must internalize immediately: responding parties now have 21 days to file their opposition (down from the previous, often-extended timelines), oral hearings must be set within 35 to 60 days of filing, and trial courts must issue their ruling within 90 days of the hearing. Miss any of these windows and the consequences are real.
For defense counsel, the compressed timeline means motions must be filed earlier and with more precision. For plaintiff's counsel, the 21-day response window demands immediate attention — there is no longer room to let a summary judgment motion languish while focusing on other matters. Courts will also need to restructure their calendaring to accommodate the mandatory hearing windows.
National Law Review — Summary Judgment Rules"Separate the ballots cast after 7:00 PM from those cast before."
— Texas Supreme Court Emergency Order, March 4, 2026
In a dramatic intervention during the March 2026 primary elections, the Texas Supreme Court issued emergency orders in both Dallas and Williamson counties directing election officials to segregate ballots cast after 7:00 PM. The orders came after Attorney General Ken Paxton's office raised concerns about last-minute changes to polling locations.
Dallas County had eliminated several centralized voting locations, prompting claims that voters who arrived at closed sites were redirected too late to cast ballots before the standard 7:00 PM cutoff. In Williamson County, similar consolidation decisions led to long lines extending well past closing time. U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett publicly challenged the changes as voter suppression.
The legal significance extends beyond election night logistics. The Court's willingness to intervene via emergency order — rather than letting the political process resolve these disputes — signals a more active judicial posture on election administration. Practitioners advising counties on election procedures should take note: changes to polling infrastructure now carry immediate judicial scrutiny risk.
Texas Tribune — Primary Voting OrdersThe Texas Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling affirming that produced water — the brackish, mineral-laden byproduct of oil and gas extraction — belongs to the mineral estate owner, not the surface estate owner. The decision resolves a question that has simmered through Texas property law for decades and carries enormous financial implications.
Produced water has emerged as both an environmental liability and a commercial asset. Companies are increasingly recycling it for use in hydraulic fracturing, agricultural irrigation (after treatment), and even lithium extraction. By tying ownership to the mineral estate, the Court has effectively granted oil and gas operators — and their lessors — control over a resource that was previously in a legal gray area.
Surface estate owners who assumed they had rights to water emerging on their land now face a stark new reality. Mineral lease negotiations going forward will need to explicitly address produced water allocation, and existing leases may be subject to reinterpretation. Title examiners should update their checklists accordingly.
National Law Review — Produced Water RulingThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has certified a question to the Texas Supreme Court, asking it to resolve an unsettled issue of state law that proved dispositive in a pending federal appeal. While the specific question involves the scope of Texas's economic loss rule in construction defect cases, the broader significance lies in the mechanism itself.
Certification allows federal courts to avoid making an Erie guess on state law questions where no controlling precedent exists. For Texas practitioners handling cases in federal court, a certified question means the Texas Supreme Court will effectively set precedent that governs future federal diversity cases. The ruling, when it comes, will bind both state and federal courts — making this a two-for-one precedent event.
Attorneys with pending cases touching the economic loss rule should consider whether to seek stays until the Texas Supreme Court issues its opinion. The timeline for certified question responses varies, but practitioners should anticipate six to twelve months.
The U.S. Department of Justice has released its first-ever department-wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, consolidating what were previously scattered, division-specific guidelines into a single framework. For Texas businesses — particularly those in energy, healthcare, and defense contracting — the policy reshapes the calculus around internal investigations and self-reporting.
The key takeaway for in-house counsel: companies that voluntarily disclose misconduct, cooperate fully, and remediate will receive a presumption of declination — meaning no criminal charges. This is a significant incentive shift. Texas energy companies, which face persistent FCPA and environmental compliance risk, should revisit their internal reporting protocols to ensure they can meet the policy's timeliness requirements.
DOJ — Corporate Enforcement PolicySeveral recent Texas appellate court decisions are reshaping how courts determine jurisdiction in interstate custody disputes under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). The trend line is clear: Texas courts are taking a harder look at the "home state" determination, particularly in cases involving military families and remote workers who split time across state lines.
Court holds that six months of "virtual presence" via remote work does not establish home state jurisdiction. Physical residence remains determinative.
Military family stationed temporarily in Texas cannot invoke UCCJEA jurisdiction when permanent residence remains in another state. Deployment orders are not domicile evidence.
Court examines hybrid custody arrangements where children physically reside in Texas but attend virtual school registered in another state. Finds Texas has jurisdiction based on physical presence of the child.
For family law practitioners, the message is to document physical presence meticulously. Courts are distinguishing between digital connections to a state and actual, physical habitation — and they are siding with the latter when determining where custody disputes should be heard.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has advanced its proposed Performance Credit Mechanism to the formal rulemaking stage. The PCM would create a market-based reliability framework requiring generators to hold performance credits proportional to their dispatchable capacity. Generators that fail to perform during scarcity events would face financial penalties.
The PCM represents the most significant structural change to Texas's electricity market since ERCOT's creation. After the catastrophic failures of Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and subsequent grid stress events, the Legislature directed the PUC to develop a mechanism ensuring adequate reliable generation capacity. The proposed rule would effectively create a capacity payment system within Texas's traditionally energy-only market — a philosophical shift that has divided the energy bar.
Energy attorneys should advise generator clients to model their exposure under the proposed penalty structure and consider submitting formal comments before the April 15 deadline. Renewable energy developers face particular uncertainty, as the mechanism's treatment of intermittent resources remains under debate.
The Texas Legislature is considering SB 1621, which would further restrict judicial discretion in setting bail for violent offenses. The bill comes in response to several high-profile cases in Harris County where defendants charged with violent crimes reoffended while on pretrial release. If enacted, the bill would mandate minimum bail amounts for certain offenses and require GPS monitoring as a condition of release for all charges involving bodily injury.
Defense attorneys are marshaling constitutional challenges, arguing that mandatory minimum bail amounts violate the Texas Constitution's prohibition on excessive bail and the Eighth Amendment. The Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association has formally opposed the bill, citing data showing that pretrial detention disproportionately impacts indigent defendants without reducing recidivism. The bill is currently in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and is expected to receive a hearing before the end of March.
With the FTC's nationwide noncompete ban still enjoined in federal court, Texas employers continue to enforce existing agreements under state law. However, several recent Texas appellate decisions have narrowed the definition of "protectable interest" required to sustain a covenant not to compete. The trend suggests Texas courts are independently moving toward stricter scrutiny of noncompetes, even without federal action. Employers should audit existing agreements to ensure they satisfy the evolving state-law requirements.
The Texas Workforce Commission has issued new guidance addressing wage-and-hour obligations for remote employees. Key clarification: employers must compensate remote workers for all "suffered or permitted" work, including after-hours email responses and Slack messages. The guidance also addresses multi-state tax withholding for employees who work remotely from Texas but are employed by out-of-state companies — a growing source of audit risk.
Following New York City's lead, multiple Texas municipalities are considering ordinances requiring employers to disclose when AI tools are used in hiring decisions. Austin's proposed ordinance, currently in committee, would require bias audits of automated employment decision tools and mandate candidate notification at least 10 days before an AI-assisted screening. Employers using AI resume screeners or video interview analysis should begin compliance planning now.
The Texas Comptroller's Property Tax Assistance Division has released its 2026 property value study, revealing significant disparities in appraisal ratios across several major metropolitan counties. Harris County's median appraisal-to-sale ratio fell to 0.82, suggesting systematic undervaluation of commercial properties — a finding that could trigger state-mandated appraisal methodology reviews under Tax Code Section 5.10.
Property tax attorneys representing commercial property owners should file protest hearings before the May 15 deadline. The Comptroller's data provides strong evidentiary support for challenging over-appraisals in counties where the ratio study reveals inconsistencies. Conversely, taxing units may use the study to argue that current appraisals are actually too low — creating a double-edged dynamic in protest proceedings.
Separately, HB 2401 — which would expand the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 for school district taxes — has cleared the House Ways and Means Committee. If enacted, the bill would reduce school district tax revenue by an estimated $2.3 billion annually, with downstream effects on school finance litigation that has defined Texas constitutional law for decades.
The Texas Department of Insurance has announced a significant increase in enforcement actions under the state's surprise billing protections (SB 1264), with 47 enforcement actions filed in the first quarter of 2026 alone — nearly double the full-year total for 2025. The enforcement wave targets both out-of-network providers who improperly balance-bill patients and health plans that fail to make timely interim payments during the arbitration process.
"Providers and plans alike must treat the independent dispute resolution process as mandatory, not aspirational."
— TDI Commissioner's Statement, March 2026
Healthcare attorneys should advise provider clients to review their billing workflows for compliance with SB 1264's notice requirements. The most common enforcement trigger has been failure to provide the mandatory disclosure form to patients before delivering non-emergency out-of-network services. For health plan counsel, the focus should be on the 30-day interim payment requirement — TDI has signaled that late payments, even by a single day, will result in enforcement referrals.
Texas's controversial SB 4, which creates state criminal penalties for illegal entry and allows state judges to order deportation, continues its contested journey through the federal courts. The Fifth Circuit has maintained its stay on key provisions while the case proceeds, but the Texas Attorney General's office has indicated it will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for an expedited review if the stay is not lifted by the end of the current term.
Meanwhile, DPS has expanded its Operation Lone Star enforcement zones along the border, creating practical implications for criminal defense attorneys handling cases in border counties. Defense counsel should be aware that state charges filed under SB 4 may carry both immigration consequences and Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel complications, as defendants facing state-ordered removal have contested the adequacy of appointed counsel in these hybrid proceedings.
Criminal defense attorneys in border counties should review the Fifth Circuit's standing orders regarding SB 4 stays before advising clients. The enforceability of specific provisions changes frequently as the litigation progresses. Consult the TCDLA's SB 4 resource page for the most current status of each provision.