Mechanism 17
Deemed admissions, and getting them back
What happens if you miss the deadline to answer requests for admission in Texas?
They are admitted. Not deemed admitted on motion — admitted, automatically, without any court order, the moment the response deadline passes. Getting them withdrawn requires good cause, no undue prejudice, and that the merits be subserved. Where the admissions would decide the case, the Supreme Court has put a constitutional floor under that test.
By John P. Henry · Tex. R. Civ. P. 198.2(c), 198.3 · Reviewed 2026-08-02
The authority
If a response is not timely served, the request is considered admitted without the necessity of a court order.Tex. R. Civ. P. 198.2(c)
Tex. R. Civ. P. 198.2(c), 198.3
When it applies
Any case where a deadline was missed — new counsel inheriting a file, a pro se defendant who later retains, a calendaring failure. It is also an offensive mechanism: requests drafted so that silence disposes of the case are cheap to serve and occasionally decisive.
How it is proved up
- Move to withdraw rather than arguing the merits around the admissions. Until they are withdrawn they are conclusively established and no evidence contradicting them is admissible.
- Where the admissions would preclude presentation of the merits, say so and cite the due-process line. Denying withdrawal of merits-preclusive admissions has been treated as effectively imposing a death-penalty discovery sanction, so absent flagrant bad faith or callous disregard good cause exists.
- Show the absence of undue prejudice concretely — the trial date holds, the discovery period is open, the responses are attached to the motion.
- Attach the responses. A motion to withdraw that does not tender the answers asks the court to take the cure on faith.
- If you are the one holding the admissions, do not over-reach. A party that uses reflexive deemed admissions to win outright is inviting reversal.
What defeats it
- Flagrant bad faith or callous disregard, which defeats good cause.
- Real prejudice — a trial date that cannot move, a witness released, discovery closed in reliance.
- Admissions that are not merits-preclusive. The constitutional protection attaches to the ones that would decide the case; ordinary deemed admissions get no such solicitude and you will live with them.
- Delay. A motion filed once the other side has built its case on the admissions is a different motion from one filed the week they were deemed.
Where I have used it
On both sides of the same problem — resisting a merits-preclusive set inherited with a file, and serving requests early in collection matters where a defendant who does not answer has conceded the account, the balance and the absence of any defence.
Questions
Are admissions automatically deemed admitted in Texas?
Yes. Under Tex. R. Civ. P. 198.2(c), a request is considered admitted without the necessity of a court order if a response is not timely served. The responding party ordinarily has 30 days.
Can deemed admissions be withdrawn in Texas?
Yes, under Rule 198.3, on a showing of good cause and that the parties relying on them will not be unduly prejudiced and that presentation of the merits will be subserved.
Can deemed admissions decide a case?
They can, but the Texas Supreme Court has treated using them to preclude presentation of the merits as implicating due process, and has held that denying withdrawal in that situation effectively imposes a death-penalty sanction.