Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 45.012 – Electronically Created Records
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(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a document that is issued or maintained by a justice or municipal court or a notice or a citation issued by a law enforcement officer may be created by electronic means, including optical imaging, optical disk, digital imaging, or other electronic reproduction technique that does not permit changes, additions, or deletions to the originally created document.
(b) The court may use electronic means to:
Terms Used In Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 45.012
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
- Justice: when applied to a magistrate, means justice of the peace. See Texas Government Code 312.011
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Signature: includes the mark of a person unable to write, and "subscribe" includes the making of such a mark. See Texas Government Code 312.011
- Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(1) produce a document required by law to be written;
(2) record an instrument, paper, or notice that is permitted or required by law to be recorded or filed; or
(3) maintain a docket.
(c) The court shall maintain original documents as provided by law.
(d) An electronically recorded judgment has the same force and effect as a written signed judgment.
(e) A record created by electronic means is an original record or a certification of the original record.
(f) A printed copy of an optical image of the original record printed from an optical disk system is an accurate copy of the original record.
(g) A justice or municipal court shall have a court seal, the impression of which must be attached to all papers issued out of the court except subpoenas, and which must be used to authenticate the official acts of the clerk and of the recorder. A court seal may be created by electronic means, including optical imaging, optical disk, or other electronic reproduction technique that does not permit changes, additions, or deletions to an original document created by the same type of system.
(h) A statutory requirement that a document contain the signature of any person, including a judge, clerk of the court, or defendant, is satisfied if the document contains that signature as captured on an electronic device.
Text of article effective until January 01, 2025