Motions for Summary Judgment filed in Texas on or after March 1, 2026 are subject to new rules and deadlines that apply to the movant, nonmovant, and the court. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a has been completely rewritten, and the procedural habits (and tactics) that governed summary judgment practice for decades are no longer operative.

This article is a practitioner’s guide to the new rule. It covers what changed, why it changed, how the new deadline structure works in practice, and what plaintiff’s counsel, defense counsel, and courts need to do differently starting now.

Texas Rule 166a: What Changed on March 1, 2026

The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 293 and House Bill 16 during the 89th Legislative Session, mandating a top-to-bottom revision of Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a. SB 293 required strict scheduling for hearings and rulings to end the era of motions languishing on trial court dockets. HB 16 modified those judicial action timelines, extending certain deadlines from 45 to 60 days and allowing the 90-day window under limited circumstances. The Texas Supreme Court finalized the amendments and signed them on February 27, 2026 (Misc. Docket No. 26-9012). The changes took effect March 1, 2026, and apply to every motion for summary judgment filed on or after that date.

The goals were speed, consistency, and accountability. For years, summary judgment motions in Texas state courts could linger indefinitely. A motion could sit on a docket for months with no hearing set, no ruling issued, and no mechanism to force a resolution. The amended rule changes all of that by imposing mandatory deadlines on both parties and the court itself.

The court’s comment accompanying the 2026 revision makes clear that the rewrite is procedural, not substantive. The underlying legal standards for granting or denying summary judgment have not changed. What has changed is everything about how those motions move through the system.

TRCP Rule 166a (2026)

Old Rule vs. New Rule: Side-by-Side Comparison

Here is how the key provisions changed under the 2026 rewrite. The substantive legal standards for granting or denying summary judgment are unchanged; everything below is procedural.

Procedural Issue	Old Rule	New Rule (Effective March 1, 2026)
Response deadline	7 days before the hearing	21 days after the motion is filed
Reply deadline	Not explicitly set by rule	7 days after the response is filed
Deadline clock runs from	Hearing date (floating)	Date of filing (fixed)
Court required to set hearing	No mandatory deadline	Within 60 days of filing (90 days with good cause or movant’s agreement); no earlier than 35 days after filing
Court required to rule	No mandatory deadline	Written ruling within 90 days of hearing or submission date
Motion title	No specific titling requirement	Must be titled “Traditional,” “No-Evidence,” or “Combined Motion for Traditional and No-Evidence Summary Judgment”
Oral argument request	Could appear anywhere in the filing	Must appear in the title of the motion or response
Proposed orders	Not required by rule	Both parties must submit proposed orders before the hearing or submission date
Reply limitations	New grounds in reply addressed by case law only	Expressly prohibited by rule; reply may not raise new or independent summary judgment grounds
Motion withdrawals	No formal requirement	Must be formally filed and must identify the original filing date of the motion
Compliance reporting	None	Clerks report quarterly to the Office of Court Administration; OCA publishes annual public report
Legal standards for granting/denying	No genuine issue of material fact; movant entitled to judgment as matter of law	Unchanged

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