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Get the exam first. It is free, it does not require a police report, and for an adult it is available within 120 hours. The Houston hospitals that perform it are listed on our Houston SANE exam locations page, and our what to do now page walks through the first days in order.
If you are able to, report to the police now. You are not required to, but the same early evidence that builds a prosecution builds a civil claim.
Then call 713-521-0059, or message us, and say it happened this week. We will tell you what your case needs and get it started, beginning with written notice to whoever holds the video and records so it is kept. There is no guaranteed response time, but we typically respond within 12 to 24 hours of a call or message.
Texas requires an unreported kit to be preserved until the earlier of two dates. That rule applies if you had a forensic exam but did not report to law enforcement. One is the fifth anniversary of the date the evidence was collected. The other is the date you give written consent to release it.
After five years, the kit can be destroyed only if two conditions are met. Notice of the planned destruction must be entered into the statewide electronic tracking system, and there must be no objection from you received before the 91st day after that notice. Whether your chance to object is real depends on the notice reaching you, and whether it reaches you depends on your being registered in that system and reachable through it. What cannot wait is an objection once a notice arrives, and the civil deadline, which can be shorter than five years. Call 713-521-0059.
Article 56A.306(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure covers an entity that receives evidence collected during a forensic medical examination under that subchapter. It must preserve the evidence until the earlier of two dates. One is the fifth anniversary of the date on which the evidence was collected. The other is the date on which written consent to release the evidence is obtained. That consent is obtained under Section 420.0735 of the Government Code.
Article 56A.306(c) then limits destruction. The entity may destroy the evidence on the expiration of its duty to preserve only if two conditions are met. Notice of the planned destruction must be entered into the statewide electronic tracking system. And an objection must not be received from the victim before the 91st day after that date. That notice-and-objection procedure, in its current form, applies to evidence collected on or after 1 September 2019.
Article 56A.306(a) also requires the Department of Public Safety to develop procedures for transfer, preservation and testing of evidence from an exam for an assault that was not reported. Those procedures include notification of the survivor through the tracking system before a planned destruction. For evidence collected on or after 1 December 2025, they also cover DNA testing performed under the limited consent you can give.
Section 420.034 of the Government Code requires the Department of Public Safety to develop and implement a statewide electronic tracking system. It covers evidence collected in relation to a sexual assault or other sex offense. That includes the evidence collection kit and other items collected during the forensic medical examination and submitted for laboratory analysis. It applies regardless of whether the evidence is collected in relation to an individual who is alive or deceased. For an unreported exam, Article 56A.306(a)(3) ties notice to you before a planned destruction to this same tracking system.
The system is the mechanism by which the destruction notice is supposed to reach you. Register for it and check it.
In some cases, yes. Section 420.0736 allows you, or another person authorized to consent to release under Section 420.0735, to give limited consent. That consent authorizes DNA testing by the department on the biological evidence in the kit without reporting the offense to a law enforcement agency.
The date the evidence was collected decides whether this is available to you. Section 420.0736 took effect on 1 September 2025, but the Act that created it applies it only to biological evidence collected on or after 1 December 2025. A kit collected before that date is governed by the earlier law. If your kit is eligible, the decision does not have to be made at the hospital. It can be made later, for as long as the kit is still preserved, which for an unreported exam is the five year period described above.
The statute states its own purpose, which is to encourage the reporting of sexual assaults or other sex offenses that would otherwise remain unreported. It also requires the department to adopt a consent form containing this statement, quoted here exactly as the statute writes it, capital letters and all:
“IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REPORT AN OFFENSE TO A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN FORENSIC DNA TESTING OF BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE COLLECTED DURING YOUR FORENSIC MEDICAL EXAMINATION. HOWEVER, IF YOU AUTHORIZE FORENSIC DNA TESTING OF THE BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE COLLECTED DURING YOUR EXAMINATION WITHOUT REPORTING THE OFFENSE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, ANY RESULTS OF THE FORENSIC DNA TESTING WILL NOT BE COMPARED TO DNA PROFILES MAINTAINED IN DNA DATABASES AND WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO USE IN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OR TRIAL.”
Limited consent gets the biological evidence tested without involving police. It does not put the result through the databases, and it does not make the result usable in a criminal case. If you choose this route, you should know both halves of that.
Section 420.0735 requires written consent for release of evidence in a kit. It is signed by the survivor if the survivor is 14 or older. If the survivor is younger than 14, it is signed by a parent, guardian or an employee of the Department of Family and Protective Services. If the survivor is deceased, it is signed by the personal representative.
A civil claim against a hotel, an apartment complex, a business or an institution does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction. So a decision not to report does not close the courthouse door to you. What a civil claim does need is evidence, and most of the evidence is not yours. It is in the records of the business or building where it happened, and those records are on an automatic timer. Our page on what evidence matters, and what disappears covers it.
What the kit does is answer the identity question when it is contested. Identity is contested more often in a civil case than survivors expect. The kit is also, sometimes, the only physical corroboration that exists years later.
The civil deadlines are not the same as the preservation period. A negligence claim against a property owner is often governed by the two year period in Section 16.003(a). That is so unless a longer period applies, for example the periods in Section 16.0045 for claims arising from sexual assault. The five year kit clock can still be running long after your strongest civil claim has expired. Do not treat the kit’s deadline as your case’s deadline.
Section 16.0045 is written in terms of the conduct. Courts decide whether it reaches a property owner or institution sued for its own negligence. The safe planning assumption is the shorter period, so decide early which applies. Our page on how long you have to sue explains both.
Stay findable. Your right to object before the 91st day depends on notice reaching you. If your phone number, address or email changes, the tracking system registration is the thing to update.
Write down where the exam happened. Note the facility, the date, and the kit or tracking number if you were given one. Five years is long enough to forget, and it is the information anyone would need to find the kit later.
An advocate can do this with you. Communications with an advocate from a sexual assault program, made while the advocate is advising, counseling or assisting you, are confidential under Section 420.071. Section 420.072 sets limited exceptions. An advocate can help you use the tracking system without any lawyer being involved at all.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
The notice and objection protections depend on notice reaching you. Keep your tracking system registration current, and keep a note of the facility and the date.
You can ask us how the kit process works without giving your name and without deciding whether to report or to file anything. If a five year notice has reached you and you are unsure what to do, the objection is time-sensitive, and the answer is usually short. We also look at your civil deadline, which can be shorter than the five year kit period.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and survivors across Texas.
If you are an advocate or a counselor asking on someone’s behalf, you are welcome to call with a general question. We will not ask you for their name.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Until the earlier of the fifth anniversary of the date the evidence was collected, or the date written consent to release it is obtained. That is Article 56A.306(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Not without notice in the tracking system. Article 56A.306(c) permits destruction only if notice of the planned destruction is entered into the statewide electronic tracking system and no objection is received from the victim before the 91st day after that date. Keep your registration current so the notice can reach you.
Yes, for evidence collected on or after 1 December 2025. Section 420.0736 of the Government Code allows limited consent authorizing DNA testing without reporting the offense. The statutory warning says results obtained this way will not be compared to DNA profiles in the databases. It also says they will not be subject to use in a criminal investigation or trial.
Under Section 420.0735, the survivor signs if 14 or older. A parent, guardian or Department of Family and Protective Services employee signs if the survivor is younger than 14, and the personal representative signs if the survivor is deceased.
No. A civil claim against a property owner or institution does not require a police report, an arrest, a charge or a conviction. The kit matters most where identity is contested, and it can be the only physical corroboration left years later. Most of the evidence a civil claim needs is in the records of the business or building where it happened, which are on an automatic timer.
No. A negligence claim against a property owner often runs on the two year period in Section 16.003(a). A longer period may apply, for example the periods in Section 16.0045 for claims arising from sexual assault. Courts decide whether Section 16.0045 reaches a property owner sued for its own negligence. Plan on the shorter period. The kit clock can still be running long after your strongest civil claim has expired.