Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Could a Texas justice of the peace order community service instead of collecting a fine, and who was liable or insured if someone was hurt?
The Attorney General concluded that a justice of the peace could require reasonable community service, with the defendant's agreement, as a condition of deferring a fine under article 45.54. Judicial …
Could the Texas Veterans Land Board charge a later paid-in-full deed fee on an older land contract or on a contract assigned to a new purchaser?
Usually, the contract and the statutes and rules in effect when it was made controlled the paid-in-full deed fee. A later fee could not be imposed merely because the documents referred to the law 'as …
Could the city of Denison withdraw on its own from the Greater Texoma Utility Authority, and was the authority unconstitutional if it could not?
No. The Attorney General found no statute allowing Denison to withdraw unilaterally from the Greater Texoma Utility Authority; the governing law instead gave the authority's board procedures for exclu…
Which Texas continuing-care retirement facilities needed certificates of authority, qualified for transition rules, or fell within the new 1987 regulatory act?
Facilities occupied, under construction, or backed by substantial development obligations by September 1, 1987, were entitled to certificates without satisfying section 4(c)'s substantive criteria, bu…
Was Gregg County's 1955 special road law constitutional, and did the 1983 County Road and Bridge Act replace it?
If the constitutionally required local notice was not published, the parts of the Gregg County law that regulated the commissioners court's quorum and assigned general county-affairs committees were u…
Did Texas's 1987 property-tax exemption for non-income-producing recreational boats apply to boats already on the tax rolls?
Yes, but only in taxing units whose 1987 tax rolls had not been certified when the amendment took effect on May 26, 1987. Tax liability was not fixed merely because a boat was listed on the appraisal …
Could a Texas county commissioner use county crews, equipment, and materials to build an alley inside a city without specific commissioners-court approval?
No. An ex officio road commissioner had no independent authority to commit county resources. Work on a city street or alley required action by the commissioners court under section 2.010, consent from…
Could the Lubbock Emergency Communication District sell 911 service outside its boundaries, charge a joining jurisdiction, and immediately change its board?
The district could contract under the Interlocal Cooperation Act with a nonmember jurisdiction that independently had authority to provide 911 service, and it could charge a joining jurisdiction for i…
Did a Texas county have to competitively procure a private company's microfilming and indexing services for the county clerk?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the company contract was neither a personal service, because the commissioners court had not selected specific individuals to perform it, nor a professional se…
How much liability insurance could a Texas state agency buy for employees using agency vehicles, and what did the Attorney General review?
Article 6252-19a set no minimum or maximum coverage, and the Texas Tort Claims Act's governmental liability caps did not limit a policy bought under that article. The agency chose a reasonable amount;…
Could Texas Board of Irrigators members recover their actual official travel expenses instead of being limited to the general daily meal-and-lodging cap?
Yes. The 1985 amendment to the board's enabling law retained express authority for actual travel expenses while tying compensatory per diem to the General Appropriations Act. Because that amendment ca…
Could Sutton County self-fund part of its employee health coverage through an account controlled by an unlicensed private administrator?
No. The arrangement made the county assume part of the deductible risk and therefore functioned as self-insurance. The only statute then authorizing county self-insurance applied to counties with more…
Could Texas let directors of a failing state bank sell most of its assets with FDIC help and banking-commissioner approval but no shareholder vote?
Yes. Article 342-803a was a constitutional banking regulation. Shareholders had no general statutory right to approve a bank's asset sale unless they had reserved one by bylaw, and the Banking Code's …
Could an appropriations rider require the Texas National Guard Armory Board to spend construction and maintenance funds through the Adjutant General's Department?
Yes. The Adjutant General's Department had implied statutory authority to build, maintain, and repair military facilities, so an interagency contract did not exceed its lawful duties. Rider 17 validly…
Could a Texas Commission for the Deaf member also work for a local deaf council that received a commission contract?
Not if the member had a paid financial interest in the council or authority to contract for it. A paid interest made the commission contract illegal and void, while authority to represent both sides v…
Could a Texas recorded document combine a jurat and acknowledgment in one notary paragraph, and did the county clerk have to review the jurat?
Yes. A jurat could be included within an acknowledgment. If the instrument otherwise met Property Code section 12.001's recording requirements, the county clerk's ministerial duty was to record it, no…
Did a county auditor or county treasurer have to sign before money could be withdrawn from a court trust-fund account administered by a county or district clerk?
No. The clerk with legal custody of the trust funds drew the check, and withdrawal required an order from the judge of the court where the funds had been deposited. Neither the county auditor nor the …
Could Harris County require a construction contractor to perform at least 25 percent of the work with the contractor's own employees?
No. The county's competitive-bidding laws did not authorize that restriction, and a self-performance requirement would improperly limit competition. The county could still reject a particular bid as n…
Could a commissioners court set the fees charged by a sheriff or constable for executing criminal warrants?
No. The opinion concluded that commissioners courts could not set those fees in misdemeanor or felony cases. Misdemeanor costs for state offenses had to remain uniform statewide, while the former felo…
Could a county auditor require travel documentation from commissioners receiving fixed monthly allowances, and which trips could the county cover?
The auditor could not require documentation before paying a fixed monthly allowance. The allowance still had to be reasonably related to official county business and actual expenses. Home-to-courthous…
Did Texas Water Commission members have to live in different regions of the state?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Water Code section 5.052 did not create an enforceable geographic residency requirement. Its reference to a different 'section of the state' expressed a legisla…
Could a duplicate Texas traffic ticket serve as the criminal complaint in justice or municipal court, and could the conviction support a habitual-violator suspension?
The Attorney General concluded that a duplicate traffic-violation notice could serve as the complaint for a guilty or nolo contendere plea in either justice or municipal court if it met the statutory …
Could a Texas bail bondsman combine cash and real property to meet the statutory security deposit minimum?
No. The Attorney General concluded that former article 2372p-3 required a Bexar County applicant to choose either the cash option or the property-deed option. Property used under the second option had…
Could the Texas State Auditor direct executive agencies, write higher-education accounting rules, or audit the Comptroller's revenue estimates?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Auditor and Legislative Audit Committee could investigate and recommend changes, but could not direct how executive agencies administered the law. He also…
Did Bexar County probate courts keep jurisdiction over mental health proceedings after their former jurisdiction statute was repealed?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that Bexar County's statutory probate courts retained jurisdiction over Mental Health Code proceedings. The repeal also did not remove their authority to docket tho…
Could a Texas traffic ticket serve as the complaint in a county-court trial de novo after an appeal from justice or municipal court?
It depended on the plea in county court. If the defendant pleaded not guilty, a complaint conforming to article 45.01 had to be filed for the same offense. If the plea was guilty or no contest, the du…
Could the Texas Aeronautics Commission regulate an interstate air carrier that also operated flights entirely within Texas?
No. The Attorney General concluded that any carrier transporting passengers or property between Texas and another state fell outside the Texas Aeronautics Act. The Commission therefore lacked authorit…
Could the Texas Railroad Commission approve railroad depot or agency closings for interstate carriers operating intrastate service?
No, not while Texas lacked the federal certification required by the Staggers Rail Act. The Attorney General concluded that federal law preempted Commission authority over depot or agency discontinuan…
Could a Texas county hospital pay visiting physicians or give salaried staff extra compensation for treating indigent patients?
Not for services performed in those existing roles at the county hospital. Visiting physicians had to serve without county pay, and salaried physicians could not receive extra compensation. The hospit…
Could a Texas county or home-rule city exempt religious, charitable, or educational organizations from local hotel occupancy taxes?
No. The Attorney General concluded that counties and home-rule cities could not create those hotel-tax exceptions without specific constitutional and statutory authority. The state-law exception did n…
Who could sell, lease, or close Northwest Texas Hospital, and did Amarillo hospital district voters have approval rights?
The Amarillo Hospital District board of managers had that authority after finding the action served district residents. A sale or closure could face a petition-triggered voter referendum, but a lease …
Could a Texas county commissioners court impose a countywide curfew on minors found on public property?
No. The Attorney General concluded that commissioners courts had no general police power and no statute authorized a countywide juvenile curfew. Limited control over county roads, buildings, and parks…
Could a Texas school employee be paid as an election clerk, and could a county road worker also serve as a paid part-time police officer?
Yes to both questions on the facts presented. An off-duty school employee could be paid for clerking a constitutional amendment election, and a county road worker could also serve and receive pay as a…
Could Texas voters use the former Tax Code rollback election to reduce a hospital district's adopted property tax rate?
The Attorney General concluded that they could under the 1988 statute. Article IX, section 9 authorized the legislature to structure hospital-district taxation, so the statutory voter rollback did not…
Could a Texas taxing unit impose the full 15 percent delinquent-tax collection penalty, pay its contract attorney less, and keep the difference?
No. The Attorney General concluded that every dollar collected under Tax Code section 33.07 had to be applied to the contract attorney's compensation. The taxing unit could set a penalty below 15 perc…
Could a Texas sheriff use campaign or officeholder contributions to replace or reimburse a cash shortage in an official account?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that replacing the shortage was an ordinary and necessary expense connected with the sheriff's official duties, not a prohibited personal use of political contribut…
Did Texas cities with more than 10,000 residents have to give police officers a thirty-minute meal break?
No. The Attorney General concluded that thirty minutes was a guideline for a bona fide unpaid meal period, not a required break. A meal period counted as compensable work time if the officer was not f…
Could a Texas judge require a probationer to donate to Crime Stoppers or offer a donation instead of community service?
No. The Attorney General concluded that article 42.12, section 6(e), prohibited payments not expressly authorized by statute. Crime Stoppers donations were not an authorized probation payment and coul…
Did San Marcos city council members employed by Southwest Texas State University have to abstain from voting on the university's street-abandonment request?
No, not under former article 988b as recodified in Local Government Code chapter 171. The Attorney General concluded that the state university was not a statutory business entity, although other confl…
Did Texas Medicaid and adult protective services records become public after the person named in them died?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the statutory confidentiality provisions continued after death because the statutes contained no lifetime limit. The Department of Human Resources therefore had…
Did Texas's ten-percent single-risk exposure limit apply to a casualty or surety insurer authorized to write fire insurance but not actually writing it?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that authorization to write fire and allied lines triggered the limit, whether or not the company had used that authority. The ten-percent cap applied to single-ris…
Did Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 45 and its pleading paper-size requirement apply to criminal cases?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Rule 45 applied only to civil actions. Criminal pleadings were governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Could E-1 visa holders or NATO Status of Forces personnel establish Texas residency for in-state university tuition?
Not based solely on those statuses. The Attorney General modified JM-241 after federal immigration officials concluded that E-1 traders and investors and NATO Status of Forces personnel were not permi…
Could a Texas legislator be paid by the highway department for serving as a special commissioner in an eminent-domain case?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a one-case appointment as a condemnation special commissioner was neither another office or position of profit nor a prohibited state contract, although separa…
Could a city council member with a substantial interest in a vendor vote to pay its bills or buy sole-source goods from it?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the member had to file an affidavit and abstain from both the vendor's periodic bill payments and a sole-source purchase. The only stated exception applied when…
Could an immigrant with conditional permanent residence qualify for Texas resident tuition before the condition was removed?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that federal law still classified the person as lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Conditional residents could therefore seek Texas resident tuition if they…
Could a Texas bingo operator award a door prize during the required 30-minute break between bingo games?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that a bingo occasion included the time before, during, between, and after games while people were gathered to play, so the intermission was likely part of…
Did Texas university police have to give abandoned and unclaimed property to the county purchasing agent?
No, if the university's governing board had adopted property-disposition rules under the Education Code. The Attorney General concluded that the campus-specific statute controlled over article 18.17's…
Could a city psychologist give a police chief an officer's psychological evaluation results without the officer's signed release?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that medical and mental-health confidentiality statutes required a written release, despite the city's collective bargaining agreement, unless a statutory …
How detailed did a Texas governmental body's certified agenda for a closed meeting have to be?
It did not have to be a verbatim transcript, but it had to summarize every specific subject actually discussed. Broad labels such as 'personnel' or 'litigation' were not enough, and greater detail was…
Could artificial or tube feeding be withheld under a Texas patient's directive against life-sustaining procedures?
Potentially yes. The Attorney General concluded that artificial or tube feeding could qualify as a life-sustaining procedure, but whether it merely prolonged the moment of death depended on medical ju…
Could a Texas municipal utility district tax only part of the district to repay bonds for improvements benefiting that area?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a defined-area tax met the constitution's equal-distribution requirement when it was fairly proportioned to the benefit received by the taxed property.
Did Texas's open-beach property disclosure law apply when coastal property was sold through a nonjudicial foreclosure?
Yes, when the foreclosure conveyed a covered real-property interest. The trustee had to give the statutory notice to the actual purchaser for each foreclosure, but the opinion concluded that section 6…
Could the Texas Human Rights Commission or EEOC order a state agency to seal personnel records after an employment-discrimination complaint?
No. The Attorney General concluded that neither commission had specific authority to order a Texas agency to seal records governed by the Open Records Act. A court could order sealing, privacy law mig…
Could Texas give the Anderson County groundwater district special powers over pumping near a hazardous-waste facility, including requiring injection-well operators to buy district water?
The Attorney General concluded that the special district law was facially valid and contained adequate standards, and that it did not facially conflict with statewide hazardous-waste law. Equal-protec…
Could Texas require out-of-state and Mexican motorists driving in Texas to carry liability insurance meeting Texas standards?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that applying the same financial-responsibility rule to resident and nonresident motorists was a valid highway-safety regulation, absent federal preemption or an ap…
Could a Texas county clerk file an assumed-name certificate whose acknowledgment was in another language but carried a Hague apostille?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the acknowledgment required for the assumed-name certificate had to be written in English. A Hague apostille authenticated the signature, capacity, and seal on …
Were Texas lawyers' fees for collecting debts subject to sales tax under the 1987 debt-collection service amendment?
Usually no. The Attorney General concluded that a lawyer's services were taxable only when the lawyer provided no legal service and acted solely as a debt collector, not when debt-collection activity …
Did a nonprofit volunteer fire department have to release records when it received public funds from a rural fire district?
Yes, to the extent of the publicly funded operation. The Attorney General concluded that Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department was a governmental body because the contract generally supported its fire and…
Could the Texas Historical Commission waive the 180-day waiting period for altering, selling, leasing, or demolishing a historic courthouse?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the statute gave the Commission no express or implied authority to waive the waiting period, which existed to allow time for preservation efforts.
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Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.