Text of article effective until January 01, 2025
Art. 45.012. ELECTRONICALLY CREATED RECORDS.  (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:
(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.
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 735, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.  Subsec. (a) amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 701, Sec. 2, eff. Aug. 30, 1999;  Subsec. (f) added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 701, Sec. 2, eff. Aug. 30, 1999.  Renumbered from Vernon's Ann.C.C.P. art. 45.021 and amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1545, Sec. 9, eff. Sept. 1, 1999;  Subsec. (h) relettered from subsec. (f) by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1420, Sec. 21.001(12), eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
Repealed by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 765 (H.B. 4504), Sec. 3.001(6), eff. January 1, 2025.