Texas: Anti-SLAPP Laws

The short answer

Texas has one of the most heavily litigated anti-SLAPP laws in the country:
the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), Civil Practice and Remedies
Code Chapter 27. A defendant sued over speech, petitioning, or association
on a matter of public concern can move to dismiss within 60 days of being
served. A major 2019 amendment (H.B. 2730) narrowed the law's scope after
years of criticism that it was being used far beyond its original purpose,
and added a long, specific list of exemptions.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Chapter 27 was enacted in 2011 and amended in 2013 and again, substantially,
in 2019. The 2019 amendment is the one that matters most for how the law
works today: it removed the phrase "relates to" from the trigger language
(narrowing what counts as a covered action), rewrote the exemptions section
from scratch, and added the current 60-day filing deadline and mandatory
fee-shifting language.

What speech or conduct is protected

The TCPA applies to a legal action "based on or in response to" a party's
exercise of the right of free speech, right to petition, or right of
association — each a defined term keyed to a "matter of public concern" (a
statement about a public official or figure, a matter of political, social,
or other interest to the community, or a subject of concern to the public).
It also separately covers acts described in § 27.010(b): gathering or
publishing information for dissemination as a dramatic, literary, journalistic,
or other artistic work, and communicating consumer opinions, complaints, or
business reviews. The 2019 amendment deliberately narrowed the "matter of
public concern" definition and dropped "relates to" from the trigger
language, both changes aimed at pulling back a scope that Texas courts had
read very broadly in the years right after 2011.

The motion to dismiss

A motion to dismiss must be filed within 60 days of service of the legal
action, extendable by agreement or for good cause. Filing it automatically
suspends all discovery in the case until the court rules, unless the court
allows limited discovery under § 27.006(b). The hearing must generally be
set within 60 days of the motion being served, though docket conditions,
good cause, or party agreement can push it out — never later than 90 days,
or 120 days if the court has allowed the limited discovery just mentioned.

Burden of proof

Texas uses a two-step, but notably asymmetric, standard. First, the movant
must show the legal action is based on or in response to the exercise of a
protected right. Second — and this is the TCPA's most distinctive feature —
the responding party can only avoid dismissal by establishing "by clear and
specific evidence a prima facie case for each essential element of the claim
in question." That "clear and specific evidence" language is a meaningfully
higher bar than the "probability of prevailing" or "reasonable likelihood"
standards used in many other states, and it is the single most litigated
phrase in Texas anti-SLAPP case law.

Attorney's fees

If the court dismisses a legal action under the TCPA, it must award the
moving party court costs and reasonable attorney's fees — mandatory, not
discretionary. The court also has discretion to award additional deterrent
sanctions against the party who brought the suit. On the flip side, if a
court dismisses a compulsory counterclaim under the TCPA, it may award the
counterclaim defendant's fees only if the counterclaim itself was frivolous
or filed solely to delay.

Right to appeal

If a court fails to rule on a TCPA motion within the time the statute
allows, the motion is deemed denied by operation of law, and that denial can
be appealed just like an actual ruling. Appellate courts are required to
expedite any appeal or other interlocutory writ arising from a TCPA ruling
or a court's failure to rule at all.

Exemptions

Section 27.010 lists twelve categories of action the TCPA does not reach at
all: government enforcement actions, statements by a seller/lessor about
their own goods or services aimed at a buyer, personal-injury/wrongful-death
claims, insurance-related claims, certain employment claims (trade secrets,
non-competes, non-disparagement agreements), family-law and protective-order
proceedings, most Deceptive Trade Practices Act claims, defenses tied to
healthcare peer-review statutes, eviction suits, attorney disciplinary
proceedings, whistleblower claims, and common-law fraud. Three of those
exemptions — the seller/lessor exemption, the DTPA exemption, and the
common-law-fraud exemption — are themselves narrowed back: the TCPA still
applies within those categories to media/journalistic gathering-and-publishing
activity and to consumer reviews or ratings of a business. A separate
provision preserves TCPA coverage for communications involving a victim of
family or dating violence, or certain crime victims, regardless of the other
exemptions.

What trips people up

"Clear and specific evidence" is a real, higher bar — not boilerplate.
Texas courts treat this standard as meaningfully stricter than the
"probability of prevailing" language many other states use, and a large
share of TCPA appeals turn on exactly what counts as sufficient evidence at
this early, pre-discovery stage.

The 2019 amendment changed the law mid-stream — know which version
applies. Chapter 27, as amended by H.B. 2730, only applies to actions
filed on or after September 1, 2019; a case filed earlier is governed by
the pre-2019 version of the law, which had a broader "relates to" trigger
and a shorter exemptions list.

A non-ruling isn't a loss — it's an automatic denial you can appeal
immediately. Because a motion left unruled past the statutory deadline is
"denied by operation of law," a movant doesn't have to wait indefinitely for
a decision; the deemed denial itself starts the clock for an expedited
appeal.

The exemptions list has narrow carve-backs that are easy to miss.
A claim can look exempt on its face (say, a DTPA claim) and still be subject
to a TCPA motion if it specifically involves media-gathering activity or a
consumer review — the exemption and its carve-back have to be checked
together, not the exemption alone.

Common questions

Does filing a TCPA motion stop the whole lawsuit? It stops discovery
automatically, but the underlying claims stay pending until the court rules
(or the ruling deadline passes and the motion is deemed denied).

Can I use the TCPA against a personal-injury claim? No — legal actions
seeking recovery for bodily injury, wrongful death, or survival, or
statements made about that legal action, are expressly exempted from the
chapter.

What if the other side's claim is only partly about protected speech?
The TCPA operates at the level of the "legal action," so a claim that is
genuinely based on or in response to protected activity can be dismissed
even if the underlying dispute has other, unprotected dimensions — the
"clear and specific evidence" showing is what determines whether the claim
itself survives.

Statutes and sources

• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 27.003 — "(a) If a legal action is based
  on or is in response to a party's exercise of the right of free speech,
  right to petition, or right of association or arises from any act of that
  party in furtherance of the party's communication or conduct described by
  Section 27.010(b), that party may file a motion to dismiss the legal
  action... (b) A motion to dismiss a legal action under this section must
  be filed not later than the 60th day after the date of service of the
  legal action... (c) Except as provided by Section 27.006(b), on the
  filing of a motion under this section, all discovery in the legal action
  is suspended until the court has ruled on the motion to dismiss." Source:
  https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/civil-practice-and-remedies-code/title-2/subtitle-b/chapter-27/section-27-003/
  (accessed 2026-07-05), cross-checked against the official enrolled H.B.
  2730 text at capitol.texas.gov.
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 27.005 — "(b) ...a court shall dismiss a
  legal action against the moving party if the moving party demonstrates
  that the legal action is based on or is in response to: (1) the party's
  exercise of: (A) the right of free speech; (B) the right to petition; or
  (C) the right of association; or (2) the act of a party described by
  Section 27.010(b). (c) The court may not dismiss a legal action under this
  section if the party bringing the legal action establishes by clear and
  specific evidence a prima facie case for each essential element of the
  claim in question." Source:
  https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/civil-practice-and-remedies-code/title-2/subtitle-b/chapter-27/section-27-005/
  (accessed 2026-07-05).
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 27.008 — "(a) If a court does not rule
  on a motion to dismiss under Section 27.003 in the time prescribed by
  Section 27.005, the motion is considered to have been denied by operation
  of law and the moving party may appeal. (b) An appellate court shall
  expedite an appeal or other writ, whether interlocutory or not, from a
  trial court order on a motion to dismiss a legal action under Section
  27.003 or from a trial court's failure to rule on that motion in the time
  prescribed by Section 27.005." Source:
  https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/civil-practice-and-remedies-code/title-2/subtitle-b/chapter-27/section-27-008/
  (accessed 2026-07-05).
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 27.009 — "(a) Except as provided by
  Subsection (c), if the court orders dismissal of a legal action under
  this chapter, the court: (1) shall award to the moving party court costs
  and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in defending against the legal
  action; and (2) may award to the moving party sanctions against the party
  who brought the legal action as the court determines sufficient to deter
  the party who brought the legal action from bringing similar actions
  described in this chapter." Source: official enrolled H.B. 2730,
  https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/pdf/HB02730F.pdf (accessed
  2026-07-05).
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 27.010 — "Sec. 27.010. EXEMPTIONS. (a)
  This chapter does not apply to: (1) an enforcement action that is brought
  in the name of this state or a political subdivision of this state by the
  attorney general, a district attorney, a criminal district attorney, or a
  county attorney... (12) a legal action based on a common law fraud claim.
  (b) Notwithstanding Subsections (a)(2), (7), and (12), this chapter
  applies to: (1) a legal action against a person arising from any act of
  that person, whether public or private, related to the gathering,
  receiving, posting, or processing of information for communication to the
  public... (2) a legal action against a person related to the
  communication, gathering, receiving, posting, or processing of consumer
  opinions or commentary, evaluations of consumer complaints, or reviews or
  ratings of businesses." Source: official enrolled H.B. 2730,
  https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/pdf/HB02730F.pdf (accessed
  2026-07-05).