The Texas military affidavit

How Texas handles it

Almost every Texas default judgment against an individual lands in a justice court, because that is where evictions, small claims, and debt claims under the jurisdictional limit are filed. Texas has no statewide affidavit for those courts. The Texas Justice Court Training Center at Texas State University publishes the model that justice courts across the state work from, listed on its forms index as "Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA) Affidavit" and dated April 2021 (index read August 15, 2026). It is a separate one-page filing, not a block inside the judgment. TJCTC publishes the default judgment orders for debt claim, small claims, and eviction cases as their own documents, so the affidavit and the judgment are two things you hand the clerk.

The form itself is spare. The caption asks for the cause number, the precinct, and the county. The body gives the plaintiff four boxes and tells you to check one: the defendant is not on active duty in the military, the defendant is on active military duty or is subject to the Act, the defendant "has waived in writing his/her rights" under the Act, or "military status is unknown at this time." There is no field for the search date, no checkbox for attaching the Defense Manpower Data Center status report, and no space for the supporting facts. Attach the DMDC certificate yourself and write the facts into the affidavit or a rider, because the checkbox alone is not what the statute asks for.

Divorce is the other high-volume Texas filing, and it has its own document. The Supreme Court of Texas approved a Military Status Affidavit inside Divorce Set 1 (uncontested, no minor children, no real property) by order in Misc. Docket No. 13-9085 dated June 17, 2013. The set’s instructions say that if no waiver and no answer were filed and the respondent did not sign the decree, you must fill out this form and the Certificate of Last Known Address and bring both to the final hearing. Its boxes are different from the justice court version: you asked DMDC and it reported no active duty, you attached a copy of that verification, you know the respondent cannot be serving for a reason you list, you do not know, or the respondent is serving.

Signing rules trip up e-filers. The justice court affidavit is sworn before the clerk or a notary. The divorce affidavit prints the instruction "Do not sign until you are in front of a notary" above the signature line. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1) requires attorneys to file electronically in courts where e-filing is mandated, through the electronic filing manager run by the Office of Court Administration, and Rule 21(f)(7) says a typed "/s/" counts as a signature "unless the document is notarized or sworn." A military affidavit is sworn, so the PDF you upload has to carry the imaged signature and the completed jurat.

Individual counties then add their own versions. Harris County’s justice courts publish a Military Status Affidavit that is signed under penalty of perjury with no notary line at all and that prints the working DMDC address, scra.dmdc.osd.mil/scra. Dallas County Justice Court 2-2 publishes an eviction version that warns twice, in bold, that you must provide proof of military status before a default judgment can be rendered, and gives you a blank line to explain why if you are not attaching the government printout. Separately, Rule 510.8(b)(13) makes every Texas eviction citation carry a bold notice that a tenant on active duty may have rights under the SCRA and under section 92.017 of the Texas Property Code.

What trips filers up here

• The TJCTC form still points filers at a dead DMDC address, https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/applj/scra/scraHome.do, and the Supreme Court divorce form prints a second dead one. The site that works is scra.dmdc.osd.mil.
• TJCTC is the training body for justice courts, not a rulemaking court. Its affidavit is a model, and your precinct may use a county version instead. Ask that clerk which one the court takes before you print anything.
• "Has waived in writing his/her rights" is a live checkbox on the TJCTC form. A waiver only counts if it was signed during or after the period of military service as a separate written instrument. Boilerplate in a lease or a note is not it.
• Neither the TJCTC form nor the Dallas eviction form has room for the supporting facts the statute wants. The Harris County version at least gives you an "I know this because" line, which is why some Texas practitioners file the county form even outside that county.

Signing it: notarization required

The signature block reads "Sworn to and subscribed before me" and is signed by the clerk of the justice court or a notary, so the plaintiff has to appear in front of one of them. The instruction paragraph at the top of the same page recites the federal rule that the requirement "may be satisfied by a written, signed document declared to be true under penalty of perjury," but the form gives you no place to do that.

This form carries a notary block, so budget for a notary before your filing date. Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling: 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) permits an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, but a state is free to require more on its own form, and this one does.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Texas and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Texas SCRA benefits.