For Lavaca County property owners

Become a plaintiff.

Help challenge Lavaca County’s 2026 tax-rate calculation.

If you own property in Lavaca County and are interested in joining the legal challenge, tell us about yourself and the properties you own below. We can follow up with you. A lawyer must review whether you can participate and explain what joining the case would involve.

The lawsuit will be filed and prosecuted by a team of lawyers led by Trent Nichols and the Law Offices of Trent Nichols, PLLC.

Tell us you’re interested.

Fields marked * are required. Add a mailing address only if it differs from your physical address.

Name *Physical address *

Include your street address, city, state, and ZIP code.

Mailing address (if different)

Leave blank if it is the same as your physical address.

Email *

Telephone *

Addresses of physical properties owned in Lavaca County *

List each property on a separate line. If a property has no street address, give its road and nearest town or a brief location description. If you do not own physical property in Lavaca County, say so here.

Message *

Tell us about your interest or any questions you have. Do not include account numbers, financial records, Social Security numbers, or confidential legal details.

I agree that the website organizers may use this information to contact me about my interest. I understand that submitting this form does not make me a plaintiff or, by itself, create an attorney-client relationship. *

Only the website administrators can review your submission for follow-up. Your information is not posted publicly or automatically sent to a law office.

Help with the cost of the case.

If you’re interested in pledging financial support, use the Message field in this form to let the organizers know.

Contributions can be delivered by check to the Law Offices of Trent Nichols, PLLC, in Shiner, Texas.

These contributions are not tax-deductible charitable donations.

Pledge financial support →

This form is the first step.

It lets organizers contact you. It does not file an action, make you a plaintiff, or create an attorney-client relationship.

Submitting it does not extend the filing deadline or change your tax obligations.

What happens next?

Organizers will follow up. A lawyer must review your eligibility and explain what joining would involve, including the information and documents needed for filing.

Read about being a plaintiff ↓

Help others hear about this.

Please share the site with friends, family, and neighbors who own property in Lavaca County. They need time to read the information and decide whether to take part.

Before you decide

What does it mean to be a plaintiff?

A plaintiff is a person who brings a case to court. In this challenge, participating property owners would ask the court to review whether the County followed the tax-rate calculation and adoption requirements.

You may need to provide property records, review statements about your circumstances, answer questions, and participate as counsel advises. Your name and filings may become part of the public court record. A lawyer should explain the expected time, possible costs, risks, and next steps before you agree.

Why do we need plaintiffs?

As it stands today, an injunction under Texas Tax Code §26.05(e) appears to be the statutory mechanism available to a taxpayer to challenge an improperly adopted tax rate and seek to prevent collection until the taxing unit complies with the law.

Requests for review have not resolved the concern. We are pursuing an injunction as a last resort to ask the court to address the disputed calculation. Eligible property owners must bring that action as plaintiffs; a website or a request for review cannot do it for them.

The protections in §26.05(e) are written for an owner who files the action. Sharing the site helps others learn about the issue; becoming a plaintiff is a separate legal step.

What does Texas law provide?

Texas Tax Code §26.05(e) provides a remedy for property owners when a taxing unit fails to comply with the calculation or adoption requirements in §§26.04 or 26.05:

Ask a court to stop collection. An owner may seek an injunction restraining collection of the taxing unit’s taxes.
Protection while the action is pending. The statute says an owner who files the action is not required to pay that taxing unit’s taxes on the owner’s property while the action is pending.
Refund and legal costs if the owner pays and prevails. The statute provides a refund of the taxes paid, together with reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs, without a separate refund application to the collector.

These provisions do not guarantee success. The taxing unit may defend the case by showing that its failure to comply was in good faith.

Filing—not signing up—is what matters.

A lawyer must determine whether you qualify, arrange the filing, and explain how these provisions apply to you. This summary is not an instruction to withhold payment. Submitting this form alone provides none of these legal protections.

The filing window is short.

Section 26.05(e) requires an action to stop collection to be filed no later than the 15th day after adoption. For the September 28, 2026 adoption described here, that date is October 13, 2026. Counsel must confirm the deadline and complete the required filing; an interest form is not a court filing.

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What happens to my information?

We save your name, physical and mailing addresses, email, telephone number, property locations, message, and submission time in private storage on the website’s hosting account. Website administrators can review this information, but it is not available to the public. The signup counter shows only a total, counted once per email address; it does not display anyone’s contact information.

The form uses a temporary cookie to protect your submission and show whether it went through. To limit spam, we also keep a coded version of your internet address for up to 24 hours. The form’s database does not store the address itself. We do not use advertising trackers.

If you want us to correct or delete your information, use this form with the same email address and tell us what you need. We will verify the request before making changes. Please do not send confidential legal information through this form.