Tex. R. Evid. 511

Waiver by Voluntary Disclosure

sha256 b465ecc50f45b95d0d6e6fdd0781a120… · retrieved 7/15/2026, 8:29:35 PM · Supreme Court of Texas official rules PDF — txcourts.gov, verbatim · verified 8/5/2026 by TXEV-1 July reconcile (artifact-proven, dual-sourced)

Rule 511. Waiver by Voluntary Disclosure
(a) General Rule.
A person upon whom these rules confer a privilege against disclosure waives the privilege
if:
33
(1) the person or a predecessor of the person while holder of the privilege voluntarily
discloses or consents to disclosure of any significant part of the privileged matter
unless such disclosure itself is privileged; or
(2) the person or a representative of the person calls a person to whom privileged
communications have been made to testify as to the person’s character or character
trait insofar as such communications are relevant to such character or character trait.
(b) Lawyer-Client Privilege and Work Product; Limitations on Waiver.
Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the following provisions apply, in the
circumstances set out, to disclosure of a communication or information covered by
the lawyer-client privilege or work-product protection.
(1) Disclosure Made in a Federal or State Proceeding or to a Federal or State
Office or Agency; Scope of a Waiver. When the disclosure is made in a
federal proceeding or state proceeding of any state or to a federal office or
agency or state office or agency of any state and waives the lawyer-client
privilege or work-product protection, the waiver extends to an undisclosed
communication or information only if:
(A) the waiver is intentional;
(B) the disclosed and undisclosed communications or
information concern the same subject matter; and
(C) they ought in fairness to be considered together.
(2) Inadvertent Disclosure in State Civil Proceedings. When made in a Texas
state proceeding, an inadvertent disclosure does not operate as a waiver if
the holder followed the procedures of Rule of Civil Procedure 193.3(d).
(3) Controlling Effect of a Court Order. A disclosure made in litigation
pending before a federal court or a state court of any state that has entered
an order that the privilege or protection is not waived by disclosure
connected with the litigation pending before that court is also not a waiver
in a Texas state proceeding.
(4) Controlling Effect of a Party Agreement. An agreement on the effect of
disclosure in a state proceeding of any state is binding only on the parties to
the agreement, unless it is incorporated into a court order.
Notes and Comments
Comment to 2015 Restyling: The amendments to Rule 511 are designed to align Texas law with
federal law on waiver of privilege by voluntary disclosure. Subsection (a) sets forth the general
34
rule. Subsection (b) incorporates the provisions of Federal Rule of Evidence 502. Like the federal
rule, subsection (b) only addresses disclosure of communications or information covered by the
lawyer-client privilege or work-product protection. These amendments do not affect the law
governing waiver of other privileges or protections.

Verbatim from the official publication; the only normalization is removal of the publisher's page headers. Verify against the official source for filing-critical use — court publications change without notice.