Legal papers filed or recorded with a county clerk must meet formatting rules, and noncompliant pages can trigger doubled filing or recording fees.
Sec. 191.007. SPECIFICATIONS FOR LEGAL PAPERS; INCREASED FEES. (a) A legal paper presented to a county clerk for filing or for recording in any county must meet the requirements prescribed by Subsections (b) through (g). Except as provided by this section, a county clerk may not impose additional requirements or fees for filing or recording a legal paper. (b) A page is considered to be one side of a sheet of paper. A page must: (1) be no wider than 8-1/2 inches and no longer than 14 inches; (2) have a sufficient weight and substance so that printing, typing, or handwriting on it will not smear or bleed through; and (3) be printed in type not smaller than eight-point type and be suitable otherwise for reproducing from it a readable record by a photocopy or photostatic or microphotographic process used in the office of the county clerk. (c) Except as provided by Section 11.008(c), Property Code, a clearly identifying heading, similar to the headings on most commercially supplied printed forms, must be placed at the top of the first page to identify the type or kind of legal paper. (d) Printing, typing, and handwriting must be clearly legible. (e) Names must be legibly typed or printed immediately under each signature. (f) All photostats, photocopies, and other types of reproduction must have black printing, typing, or handwriting on a white background, commonly known as positive prints. (g) Riders and attachments must comply with the size requirement prescribed by Subsection (b) and shall not be larger than the size of the page. Only one rider or attachment may be included in or attached to a page. (h) The filing fee or recording fee for each page of a legal paper that is presented for filing or recording to a county clerk and fails to meet one or more of the requirements prescribed by Subsections (b) through (g) is equal to twice the regular filing fee or recording fee provided by statute for that page. However, the failure of a page to meet the following requirements does not result in a fee increase under this subsection: (1) the requirement prescribed by Subsection (b)(3) relating to type size; and (2) provided that the legal paper complies with Section 11.008(c), Property Code, the requirement prescribed by Subsection (c) that a legal paper have a clearly identifying heading. (i) If a page of a legal paper has more riders or attachments than one, the filing fee or recording fee for each rider or attachment in excess of one is twice the regular filing fee or recording fee provided by statute. (j) If a page of a legal paper has one or more riders or attachments larger than the permitted size, the filing fee or recording fee for each oversized rider or attachment is twice the regular filing fee or recording fee provided by statute for the rider or attachment. (k) This section does not authorize a county clerk to refuse to record a legal paper for the reason that it fails to meet one or more of the requirements prescribed by Subsections (b) through (g). Failure to comply with these requirements shall not in any manner alter, amend, impair, or invalidate any document or legal instrument of any type or character and upon recordation by the county clerk the document or legal instrument shall be deemed and considered as fully complying with the provisions of law dealing with the recordation of documents or legal instruments of every type and character. Added by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1, Sec. 20(c), eff. Aug. 28, 1989. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 555, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1993. Amended by: Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 45 (S.B. 461), Sec. 2, eff. May 13, 2005. Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 1036 (H.B. 1140), Sec. 1, eff. June 18, 2005. Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 87 (S.B. 1969), Sec. 15.006, eff. September 1, 2009.