How Texas Roofing Restoration Contractors Can Protect Their Payment
The Cromeens Law Firm
October 1, 2026
Last Updated: October 15, 2026
If your construction business has been sued in Texas, the clock is already running. You have a hard deadline to respond, and missing it can hand the other side a win before you ever tell your story. This guide walks through exactly what to do, starting with the one date that matters most.
Picture a normal day on the job. A constable walks up and says four words: “You have been served.” Just like that, the day flips, and your company is being sued. The dread sets in, and the question hits: what do you do now?
First, do not panic. Anyone can sue anyone for anything, and being sued does not mean the other side is right or will win. Second, do not bury your head in the sand. Ignoring it feels fine at first, because nothing seems to happen for a few weeks. That quiet is the dangerous part.
Here is why. If you do not file a written answer with a Texas court by your deadline, the person who sued you can take a default judgment against you, your company, or both.
The rule in Texas civil court is simple and harsh: if you do not answer, you lose by default, without a trial and without ever telling your side. From there, the other side can freeze and garnish your company bank accounts to collect.
So do not let this sit at the bottom of your to-do pile. The single most important thing you can do is answer on time, and that starts with knowing your deadline.
In Texas district and county court, you must file a written answer by 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after 20 days have passed from the day you were served. In plain terms, that usually gives you somewhere between 21 and 27 days, depending on what day of the week you were served. If that 20th day lands on a Monday, your deadline rolls to the next Monday.
Here is how the counting works. Say you were served on a Tuesday. You do not count that day. You count 20 days forward, then go to the next Monday at 10:00 a.m.
You don’t have to guess this date. The exact deadline is printed on the citation, the official court document you were handed when you were served. It is not in a “letter,” and it is set by court rule, not by the person suing you.
One detail that trips people up: you file your answer with the clerk of the court that issued the citation, which may be the district clerk or the county clerk depending on where the suit was filed. The citation tells you which court and which clerk.
If your case is in justice court (small claims), the deadline is shorter: the end of the 14th day after you were served.
Once you know your deadline, call a Texas construction attorney like Cromeens. This is the step that protects everything else. If you already have a lawyer who handles your contracts, reviews, and collections, getting sued is simple: you pick up the phone and hand it off. If you are an LLC or a corporation, this part is not optional.
Our litigation subscription plan is built for this. You get a construction attorney who already knows your business and is ready to step in the moment you are served.
Here is why that matters. In Texas district and county court, an LLC or corporation cannot file its own answer or represent itself. It must be represented by a licensed attorney, so you can’t file the paperwork yourself.
The hours right after you are served as a construction contractor are when the most important moves get made. Work this list in order:
Sometimes, but do not count on it. If a default judgment is entered against you, Texas gives you a narrow window to ask the court to set it aside. You generally have 30 days from the date the judgment is signed to file a motion for a new trial, and the court will only grant it if you can prove three things:
That is a hard standard, it costs money to pursue, and it is never guaranteed.
Texas courts have refused to undo defaults for business owners who admitted they got the papers and simply did nothing.
The honest takeaway is the same one that runs through this whole guide: the cheapest, surest protection is to answer on time. Fixing a default after the fact is the expensive, uncertain backup plan.
The point bears repeating: if you do not respond by your deadline, you lose the lawsuit by default. Speed matters more than almost anything else here.
The Cromeens Law Firm has a team ready to take your call to help protect your construction business.
If you do not already have a lawyer, find one fast, and find the right kind. Start with their website. Does it show they represent Texas construction businesses like yours? A lawyer who does a little of everything is usually mediocre at all of it. You want someone who knows construction law and your type of company.
The attorney who writes wills or handles divorces is not the one you want defending you on a construction lawsuit in Texas.
Once you have an attorney, hand over the papers you were served with and tell them your side. They should lay out your options with the risks and rewards of each, so you can decide the best move for your company. That might be filing your answer and pushing toward mediation to settle, offering a settlement, or starting discovery for full litigation. Your lawyer will help you weigh which fits your situation.
This is one of the first questions we get, and the honest answer is that no one can give you an exact number up front. We can offer rough estimates, but much of the process is out of anyone’s control: how much the other side files that we have to respond to, how long the court takes, how many hearings get scheduled. What is certain is that litigation costs money and time.
Our objective is to get our clients out of these situations while spending as little of these two precious resources as possible. Sometimes this means swallowing our pride and offering the other side money to end the uncertainty and unknown outcome of litigation.
This is the real conversation you need to have with your attorney before you decide on what to do when you’ve been sued.
The best time to deal with a lawsuit is before one is ever filed. Strong contracts, clean documentation, and a construction attorney who already knows your business are what keep a dispute from becoming a default judgment. If you have been served, do not wait: the clock started the day those papers hit your hand.
To stay ahead of this, our litigation subscription plan keeps a construction attorney on your side before a lawsuit ever lands.
Either way, schedule a free consultation with The Cromeens Law Firm. We help Texas contractors answer lawsuits on time, protect what they have built, and avoid the next one.
Not your home, and generally not an individual’s wages. Texas protects your homestead and does not allow garnishment of a person’s current wages for ordinary business debts. A judgment can reach your company’s bank accounts, money customers or general contractors owe you, and non-exempt business property like equipment. So the real exposure after a default is your business accounts and receivables, not your home or your paycheck.
It depends on the claim. In Texas, a breach-of-contract claim generally must be filed within four years, and a claim for property damage within two years. There is also a longer backstop for construction work: a lawsuit over a defect usually cannot be brought more than 10 years after the project was substantially completed. If you are being sued over an old project, tell your attorney the key dates right away, because the deadline may have already passed.
No. Being served does not mean you appear in court the next day. It means you have a deadline to file a written answer with the court. Filing that answer on time is what keeps the case alive and stops a default. If there are any court dates, they come later, and your attorney handles the schedule from there.
You may be able to challenge it, but you have to move first and fast. An objection to the county (venue) has to be filed before or at the same time as your answer, or you lose the right to raise it. This is one more reason to get the papers to a construction attorney the moment you are served, so nothing gets waived by accident.
Karalynn Cromeens is the Owner and Managing Partner of The Cromeens Law Firm, PLLC, with over 17 years of experience in construction, real estate, and business law. A published author and passionate advocate for contractors, she has dedicated her career to protecting the businesses her clients have built. Karalynn is on a mission to educate subcontractors on their legal rights, which inspired her books Quit Getting Screwed and Quit Getting Stiffed, as well as her podcast and The Subcontractor Institute.
