Motion to Quash

A motion to quash asks the court to confirm that you don’t have to respond to a discovery request. In this case, the motion asks the court to confirm that you don’t have to respond to discovery you received before the deadline for initial disclosures. 

Before filing a motion with the court, you must learn whether the motion is opposed or unopposed. Do this by sending the other parties in the case a copy of your motion. Ask them if they are opposed or unopposed to the motion. Opposed means that the parties are not in agreement with the motion. Unopposed means the parties agree to the motion.You must put this information in the certificate of conference. If they are unopposed, you should file your motion as an unopposed motion. For motions asking for changes to the discovery rules, you should also consider filing a rule 11 agreement instead of a motion. 

You must file your motion with the court and serve it to the other parties. Some courts require electronic filing and service of motions. Otherwise you can file the motion the same way you filed your petition or answer. A document not filed electronically may be served in person, by mail, by commercial delivery service, by fax, or by email.

A court will not rule on a motion unless you set a hearing date first. Call the court clerk to get a hearing date for your motion. If your motion is opposed (the other party is against it), the hearing date must give the other party a reasonable amount of time to respond to your motion. Once you get the hearing date, you must serve a notice of the hearing date to every other party. You must attend the hearing. Be prepared to tell the judge why they should grant your motion. Bring a proposed order with you to the hearing for the judge to sign. 

Read about the rules for filing and serving motions in Rule 21 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. You can read the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure at www.txcourts.gov.

You will notice that your court document below has blank lines at the top. Those lines are for you to fill in with the initials of the children involved in this lawsuit. Please make sure the initials look like one of the other documents you have received from the court. For example, you might already have a custody order with this info at the top. Also, you may have received other documents from the court with this info at the top.

TexasLawHelp does not have forms for a Motion to Quash. But, Lone Star Legal Aid’s Texas Civil Court Disclosures Lawsuit (Self-Help Tool) does. Or look for form books in your nearest Texas law library.