When must an optional Texas venue reply and additional supporting affidavits be filed?

Confirm the actual venue hearing and any court leave.

Determine whether the movant will file an optional reply or additional supporting affidavits.

Identify the disputed venue facts and prepare the required specific evidentiary support.

1. Confirm the actual venue hearing and any court leave.
2. Seven days exceeds Rule 4’s five-day short-period exception. Compare actual filing with the venue hearing. Do not count forward from the response as though this were amended Rule 166a.
3. Read the actual order and confirm every stated condition.
4. Complete the act required by the rule, not merely a date calculation.

Rule 4 excludes the controlling event. For periods longer than five days, intermediate weekends and legal holidays count. Do not automatically move a backward latest filing or notice date forward and shorten the required interval. Establish the actual hearing, legally relevant holidays, court calendar and any leave or order. This guide makes no automatic backward closed-day adjustment.

The source guide distinguishes optional filing, venue proof, actual leave and a backward interval without inventing a result.

Actual leave and prompt determination

Rule 87(1) permits leave of court concerning the stated notice, response and reply intervals. The movant must request a setting, and the court must determine venue promptly and a reasonable time before trial on the merits. A party cannot assume leave or substitute the trial date for the venue hearing.

Specific venue denial and prima facie proof

Rule 87(3)(a) takes properly pleaded venue facts as true unless specifically denied. A properly disputed venue fact requires the stated prima facie proof, including affidavits and duly proved attachments fully specifying supporting facts. Affidavits need personal knowledge, admissible specific facts and affirmative competence. The existence of a cause is established by proper pleading for this venue purpose, rather than proof of its merits.

Reply is optional but its timing applies if used

Rule 87(1) expressly does not require a movant’s reply. A chosen reply and additional supporting affidavits remain subject to its seven-day filing requirement unless leave applies.

• This guide does not establish the actual pleadings, service, calendar, legal entitlement or terms of a signed order.
• The current consolidation date does not decide historical applicability of an individual amendment.

• Confirm the actual venue hearing and any court leave.
• Determine whether the movant will file an optional reply or additional supporting affidavits.
• Identify the disputed venue facts and prepare the required specific evidentiary support.
• Rule 87(1) permits leave of court concerning the stated notice, response and reply intervals. The movant must request a setting, and the court must determine venue promptly and a reasonable time before trial on the merits. A party cannot assume leave or substitute the trial date for the venue hearing.
• Rule 87(3)(a) takes properly pleaded venue facts as true unless specifically denied. A properly disputed venue fact requires the stated prima facie proof, including affidavits and duly proved attachments fully specifying supporting facts. Affidavits need personal knowledge, admissible specific facts and affirmative competence. The existence of a cause is established by proper pleading for this venue purpose, rather than proof of its merits.
• Rule 87(1) expressly does not require a movant’s reply. A chosen reply and additional supporting affidavits remain subject to its seven-day filing requirement unless leave applies.
• If elected, file the reply and any additional supporting affidavits within the actual interval or granted leave. Preserve the affidavit contents, duly proved attachments, filing and service proof. File the actual required document with the clerk and complete the separately required service under Rule 21a. Rule 21(f)(5) ordinarily requires electronic filing before midnight in the court’s time zone. Preserve transmission to the electronic filing service provider, the filing receipt, service evidence and any specific order. A calculation does not prove legal sufficiency or grant relief.