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Tex. Gov't Code § 554.004

BURDEN OF PROOF; PRESUMPTION; AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Texas Department of Mental Health & Mental Retardation v. Rodriguez (2001)

Most recently applied in Fort Worth Independent School District v. Palazzolo (July 2016)

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff

How often courts cite this section

20002010201610
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) A public employee who sues under this chapter has the burden of proof, except that if the suspension or termination of, or adverse personnel action against, a public employee occurs not later than the 90th day after the date on which the employee reports a violation of law, the suspension, termination, or adverse personnel action is presumed, subject to rebuttal, to be because the employee made the report.

(b) It is an affirmative defense to a suit under this chapter that the employing state or local governmental entity would have taken the action against the employee that forms the basis of the suit based solely on information, observation, or evidence that is not related to the fact that the employee made a report protected under this chapter of a violation of law.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.