Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code - Section 42.004. Awarding Litigation Costs
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§ 42.004. AWARDING LITIGATION COSTS. (a) If a settlement
offer is made and rejected and the judgment to be rendered will be
significantly less favorable to the rejecting party than was the
settlement offer, the offering party shall recover litigation costs
from the rejecting party.
(b) A judgment will be significantly less favorable to the
rejecting party than is the settlement offer if:
(1) the rejecting party is a claimant and the award
will be less than 80 percent of the rejected offer; or
(2) the rejecting party is a defendant and the award
will be more than 120 percent of the rejected offer.
(c) The litigation costs that may be recovered by the
offering party under this section are limited to those litigation
costs incurred by the offering party after the date the rejecting
party rejected the settlement offer.
(d) The litigation costs that may be awarded under this
chapter may not be greater than an amount computed by:
(1) determining the sum of:
(A) 50 percent of the economic damages to be
awarded to the claimant in the judgment;
(B) 100 percent of the noneconomic damages to be
awarded to the claimant in the judgment; and
(C) 100 percent of the exemplary or additional
damages to be awarded to the claimant in the judgment; and
(2) subtracting from the amount determined under
Subdivision (1) the amount of any statutory or contractual liens in
connection with the occurrences or incidents giving rise to the
claim.
(e) If a claimant or defendant is entitled to recover fees
and costs under another law, that claimant or defendant may not
recover litigation costs in addition to the fees and costs
recoverable under the other law.
(f) If a claimant or defendant is entitled to recover fees
and costs under another law, the court must not include fees and
costs incurred by that claimant or defendant after the date of
rejection of the settlement offer when calculating the amount of
the judgment to be rendered under Subsection (a).
(g) If litigation costs are to be awarded against a
claimant, those litigation costs shall be awarded to the defendant
in the judgment as an offset against the claimant's recovery from
that defendant.
Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 204, § 2.01, eff. Sept. 1,
2003.
Section: 41.0105 41.011 41.012 41.013 42.001 42.002 42.003 42.004 42.005 51.001 51.002 51.011 51.012 51.013 51.014
Last modified: August 11, 2007
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