Mechanism 42

Taking a Texas judgment into another state

By John P. Henry · Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, as adopted in the enforcing state; Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 35 (Texas’s reciprocal provision); U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1; 28 U.S.C. § 1738 · Reviewed 2026-08-02

The authority

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1

Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, as adopted in the enforcing state; Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 35 (Texas’s reciprocal provision); U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1; 28 U.S.C. § 1738

When it applies

Any Texas judgment against a defendant whose real property, bank accounts or receivables sit elsewhere — which, in a forum-selection-clause program, is nearly all of them. It is also the answer when a debtor moves after judgment.

How it is proved up

1. Obtain an exemplified or authenticated copy of the judgment meeting 28 U.S.C. § 1738 — not a plain certified copy, in states that require exemplification.
2. File it with the affidavit the enforcing state’s statute requires, giving the judgment creditor’s and debtor’s last known addresses.
3. Give the statutory notice and calendar the waiting period before executing. The periods differ by state and executing early is the most common error — Arizona bars execution until twenty days after the creditor mails notice and files proof of mailing, A.R.S. § 12-1704(C), while Louisiana bars it until thirty days after the clerk mails notice, La. R.S. 13:4243(C). Note which party does the mailing, because that is what starts the clock.
4. Confirm the judgment is final and not dormant in Texas first. A dormant judgment cannot be enforced anywhere.
5. Line up local counsel where the state requires it, and price it before you start — on a small judgment the domestication and local counsel can exceed the recovery.

What defeats it

• A due-process attack on the original judgment. The enforcing state will not re-try the merits, but it will hear a challenge to personal jurisdiction or to service — which is why the service affidavit and the forum-selection record matter long after judgment.
• Dormancy in Texas.
• Bankruptcy.
• A debtor with nothing to reach. In this program several judgments were domesticated, writs issued, and the sheriff reported the clinic closed or moved. A judgment is not a recovery, and a client is better served hearing that before the money is spent than after.

Where I have used it

The United Biologics program, for a former client — judgments taken in the Bexar County courts between 2014 and 2017 and then domesticated in the defendants’ home states for execution, including Louisiana, North Carolina, Maryland, Arizona and Delaware. In United Biologics v. Moss Street Medical Clinic, Inc. the Texas judgment was exemplified and filed in the 15th Judicial District Court, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, as Cause No. 20154623L; the Clerk of Court mailed notice by certified mail, the signed return receipt came back, and once the response period had run the order making the judgment executory went to the court together with written instructions for the parish sheriff to levy on the clinic’s furniture, computers and office equipment. Some judgments in that program were collected and some were not — which is the ordinary distribution on any out-of-state collection docket.