Responding to Requests for Production in Texas: A Guide

Legal content overseen by Nathan Walter, Esq., attorney licensed in California (State Bar No. 313299).

Client photographs, wage records and text messages arrive with a Texas request for production, and someone has to search them and tie them to a response.

Responding to requests for production in Texas ordinarily requires a written response within 30 days after service of the request; a narrow Family Code exception allows 50 days. That response addresses each item or category under Tex. R. Civ. P. 196.2 and handles objections and privilege under Rule 193. Deadline modifications are subject to Rule 191.1.

This guide explains the response options, deadlines and privilege procedure. For context, see our requests for production overview and discovery workflows for plaintiff firms.

Rules for responding to requests for production in Texas

A request for production (RFP) asks another party to produce or permit inspection of documents or tangible things within the scope of discovery. Rule 190 sets the discovery plan, Rule 192 sets scope, Rule 193 governs responses, objections and privilege, and Rule 196 covers production. This guide addresses the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure for civil cases in Texas district and county courts; it is not a guide to justice-court proceedings or federal courts sitting in Texas. The Texas Judicial Branch posts current rules on its rules and standards page. Interrogatories are handled separately in our guide to responding to interrogatories in Texas.

Confirm the discovery plan and scope

The plaintiff must allege in the first numbered paragraph of the original petition whether discovery is intended to proceed under Level 1, 2 or 3 (Rule 190.1). Unless the parties agree or the court orders otherwise, a party in a non-Family Code suit cannot serve discovery until after the other party’s initial disclosures are due (Rule 192.2(a)(1)).

A party may obtain discovery of any matter that is not privileged and is relevant to the subject matter of the pending action (Rule 192.3(a)). A person must produce documents and tangible things within the person’s possession, custody, or control (Rule 192.3(b)). That means physical possession, or a right to possession equal or superior to whoever has it (Rule 192.7(b)), so a client’s cloud account can matter.

Count requests under the applicable level

In Level 1, which covers expedited actions under Rule 169 and certain divorces, a party may serve no more than 15 written requests for production on any other party, and each discrete subpart counts separately (Rule 190.2(a), (b)(4)). The Level 2 limits in Rule 190.3(b) include no numerical cap on requests for production. A Level 3 order may change limits on the time for or amount of discovery; otherwise applicable Level 1 or Level 2 limits remain unless the order specifically changes them (Rule 190.4(b)).

Calendar the response and production deadlines

Three clocks run on a served request: the response, the production and any later privilege description. Rule 196.1(a) requires a request to be served no later than 30 days before the end of the discovery period. That is a cutoff for serving requests, distinct from the response deadline. The applicable discovery plan also matters: under Levels 1 and 2, discovery generally must be completed within the discovery period (Rules 190.2(b)(1), 190.3(b)(1)).

Event	Texas timing	Rule
Written response to an RFP	Within 30 days after service of the request	196.2(a)
Response by a Family Code defendant served before its answer is due	50 days after service of the request	196.2(a)
Written objections	Within the time for response	193.2(a)
Description of withheld privileged material	15 days after service of a written request for it; an exemption may apply	193.3(b), (c)
Production of documents	At the time and place requested or stated in the response, unless agreed or ordered otherwise	196.3(a)
Amended or supplemental response	Reasonably promptly after discovering the need; subject to rule exceptions, less than 30 days before trial is presumed not prompt	193.5(b)

Separate the ordinary deadline from the Family Code exception

The 50-day period applies only to a defendant in a Family Code suit served before its answer is due (Rule 196.2(a)). Other defendants have 30 days.

Check counting, service and any modification

Under Rule 4, the day of the triggering event is not counted, and a last day that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday rolls to the next day that is none of those. Rule 21a(c) adds three days for service by mail. Except where specifically prohibited, discovery procedures and limits may be modified by a Rule 11-compliant agreement or by court order for good cause (Rule 191.1). An agreement cannot modify a court order without the court’s concurrence, so the actual order and agreement matter.

Write the response required by Rule 196.2

The response is separate from the production. A party must make a complete response based on all information reasonably available to it or its attorney, and each answer or objection must be preceded by the request it answers (Rule 193.1).

Choose the response for each item or category

For each item or category, the responding party must state objections and assert privileges as the rules require, and state, as appropriate, that (Rule 196.2(b)):

1. production, inspection or other requested action will be permitted as requested;
2. the requested items are being served on the requesting party with the response;
3. production or other action will take place at a specified time and place, if the party objects to the requested time and place; or
4. no items have been identified, after a diligent search, that are responsive to the request.

An unspecified promise to produce later is not on that list.

Use the diligent-search statement only when it is accurate

Rule 196.2(b)(4) uses the words “no items have been identified – after a diligent search – that are responsive to the request.” An empty client upload folder is not a search of the places where responsive items may be. Rule 196.2 does not prescribe a search-record form; as a practical record of the inquiry, a note can identify the custodians, sources and date ranges searched.

An attorney, or an unrepresented party, signs the response, which certifies a good faith factual basis after reasonable inquiry (Rule 191.3(a), (c)). Rule 196.2 does not itself call for a party oath.

Separate specific objections from privilege withholding

State the objection and the refused portion

An objection must be in writing, made within the time for response, and state specifically the legal or factual basis and the extent to which the party is refusing to comply (Rule 193.2(a)). A good faith factual and legal basis must exist when it is made (Rule 193.2(c)). The party must comply with the unobjected portion unless that would be unreasonable before a ruling (Rule 193.2(b)). For a time or place objection, the party must state a reasonable time and place and comply there without further request or order.

An objection that is late, or obscured by numerous unfounded objections, is waived unless the court excuses the waiver for good cause (Rule 193.2(e)). Amendment is not a general reservation: it may state a basis that was inapplicable, or unknown after reasonable inquiry, when the objection was first made (Rule 193.2(d)).

Give the withholding statement, then the description on request

A party should not object that a request calls for privileged material and should comply with Rule 193.3 instead. An erroneous privilege objection does not waive the privilege, but the party must comply with Rule 193.3 once the error is pointed out (Rule 193.2(f)). Under Rule 193.3(a), a party withholding privileged material must state, in the response or a separate document:

• that responsive material has been withheld;
• the request to which it relates; and
• the privilege asserted.

Work product counts as a privilege here (Rule 192.5(d)).

After that statement, the requesting party may serve a written request to identify what was withheld. The withholding party then has 15 days after service to describe the material enough to let others assess the privilege without revealing it, and to assert a specific privilege for each item or group (Rule 193.3(b)). The privilege log is this description of withheld material; Rule 193.3(b) specifies its contents without prescribing a particular form.

Rule 193.3(c) exempts a privileged communication to or from a lawyer or lawyer’s representative, or a privileged document of either, from both steps if it was created from the point a party consults a lawyer to obtain legal services in prosecuting or defending a specific claim in the litigation, and concerns that litigation. It does not cover every document in a lawyer’s file.

Produce organized documents and address electronic data

Subject to its objections, the responding party must produce the requested items within its possession, custody or control at the time and place requested or stated in the response, unless otherwise agreed or ordered, and give a reasonable opportunity to inspect (Rule 196.3(a)). It must either produce documents as they are kept in the usual course of business or organize and label them to correspond with the request’s categories (Rule 196.3(c)). Rule 196.3(c) does not itself require Bates numbers, the unique identifiers assigned to production pages; an order or agreement may impose additional requirements. See our guides to organizing discovery documents and Bates numbering.

Address electronic data and who pays

For electronic or magnetic data, the requesting party must specifically request it and specify the form. The responding party must produce responsive data reasonably available in its ordinary course of business, and must state a compliant objection if reasonable efforts cannot retrieve it or produce it in that form (Rule 196.4).

Absent a court order for good cause, the responding party bears the expense of producing items and the requesting party bears the expense of inspecting and copying them (Rule 196.6). Rule 196.4 adds that if a court orders compliance with an electronic-data request, it must also order the requesting party to pay the reasonable expenses of any extraordinary steps to retrieve and produce the information. That does not shift all electronic-data costs.

Worked examples of Texas production responses

The following examples are invented hypotheticals, not court-approved forms or advice for a particular case.

Producing a plaintiff’s wage records with the response

After a completed search, with no objection or privilege issue, the response can be a Rule 196.2(b)(2) statement:

No responsive photographs found

A plaintiff’s phone and cloud-photo account were searched for scene photographs, and nothing turned up:

That differs from withholding photographs that exist.

A scoped objection with production of the remainder

A plaintiff claims lost wages from a warehouse injury. Assume counsel has a case-specific factual basis for objecting to older records and the request seeks ten years of employment records:

The three-year line is invented; no rule makes a particular period correct, and the objection must rest on the case’s facts (Rules 192.3, 192.4, 193.2). If counsel has a valid, nonexempt privilege, the Rule 193.3(a) statement can be one sentence: “Responsive material has been withheld in response to Request for Production No. 12 under the attorney-client privilege.”

Amend or supplement when the response changes

For a production response seeking documents or other information under Rule 193.5(a)(2), a party who learns that the response was incomplete or incorrect when made, or is no longer complete and correct, must amend or supplement it unless the additional or corrective information has been made known to the other parties in writing, on the record at a deposition, or through other discovery responses. The exception does not apply to the witness-identification information covered by Rule 193.5(a)(1).

The amendment must be made reasonably promptly after the party discovers the need. Except as otherwise provided by the rules, an amendment less than 30 days before trial is presumed not to be reasonably prompt; the rule gives no automatic safe harbor for earlier amendments. It must be in the same form as the original and verified if the original had to be verified (Rule 193.5(b)).

A party who fails to timely make, amend or supplement a response may not introduce the material not timely disclosed, unless the court finds good cause or no unfair surprise or prejudice. The party seeking to introduce the evidence has the burden (Rule 193.6(a), (b)).

Check the response against the production

Before service, compare the response to the production:

• Any diligent-search statement has a search behind it.
• Privilege appears in a withholding statement, not an objection.
• Bates references match the production.
• The response is signed and served on all parties of record (Rules 191.3(a), 191.5).

Prepare Texas discovery responses with Briefpoint

Briefpoint supports parts of the drafting and production work behind a Texas production response. It can draft discovery responses and objections to requests for production, with output you can edit in Microsoft Word. Autodoc document matching and Bates citations finds responsive documents, adds page-level Bates citations and builds a Bates-numbered production package, which helps when a response needs to point to specific pages.

For a response that has to change after new records arrive, the platform offers Supplemental Responses.

The attorney keeps final review of scope, objections, privilege, the search statement and what is served. That review includes checking the response against the collected records and the applicable Texas rules. The legal discussion above describes the responding party’s obligations; the product capabilities described here are drafting responses and objections, editable Word output, Autodoc document matching and production, and Supplemental Responses.

Book a demo to see how Briefpoint can support your discovery-response workflow.

Watch the Briefpoint demo:

FAQs About Responding to Requests for Production in Texas

How long do you have to respond to requests for production in Texas?

The ordinary written-response deadline is 30 days after service under Tex. R. Civ. P. 196.2(a). A defendant in a suit governed by the Family Code who is served before its answer is due need not respond until 50 days after service. Rule 21a(c) adds three days for mail service, and an order or agreement can change the period.

What must a Texas response to a request for production include?

Each item or category needs the required objections, privilege assertions and an appropriate Rule 196.2(b) statement: production as requested; items served with the response; production at a specified time and place if objecting to the requested time and place; or no responsive items identified after a diligent search. Under Rule 193.1, the request must precede its response. The alternate time-and-place option is not an unspecified promise to produce later.

What if a diligent search finds no responsive documents?

The responding party states that no items have been identified, after a diligent search, that are responsive to the request. That is the fourth option in Rule 196.2(b)(4). If that production response later proves incomplete or incorrect, Rule 193.5(a)(2) requires an amendment or supplement unless the corrective information has been made known to the other parties in writing, on the record at a deposition or through other discovery responses.

When is a privilege log due in Texas discovery?

Under Rule 193.3(b), the privilege description is due within 15 days after service of a written request to identify withheld material. Rule 193.3(a) first requires a statement identifying that responsive material was withheld, the request involved and the privilege asserted. The later description must allow assessment of the privilege and specify it for each item or group. Rule 193.3(c) exempts certain privileged lawyer communications and documents.

Who pays for retrieving electronic data in Texas discovery?

Under Rule 196.6, the responding party bears the expense of producing items unless the court orders otherwise for good cause, and the requesting party bears the cost of inspecting and copying them. For electronic data, Rule 196.4 adds that if the court orders compliance, it must also order the requesting party to pay the reasonable expenses of any extraordinary retrieval and production steps.

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