Owed equity, bonuses or severance in Texas?
Equity, severance and employment-contract disputes in Texas generally turn on the agreement itself. Deadlines, forums and available remedies depend on the documents and what happened.
You can request a review before you sign anything, even if you are not sure what the agreement allows.
Updated August 2026
- Unpaid commissions, bonuses, equity, or deferred compensation
- A disputed severance agreement or release
- Noncompete, nonsolicit, confidentiality, or clawback terms
- Retaliation or termination affecting vested or earned compensation
Texas equity, bonus, and severance disputes generally proceed as contract matters in court or arbitration. Texas may enforce a noncompete when it is tied to an enforceable agreement and contains reasonable limits. Contract claims generally use a four-year limitations period unless a more specific rule applies.
The firm represents employees statewide across Texas in equity compensation and severance matters. The state-level rules on this page apply wherever in Texas you worked. Compare deadlines across all states →
Texas at a glance.
- Governing law
- Texas employment-contract and covenant-not-to-compete law, Tex. Bus. & Com.
More detail
Code §§ 15.50–15.52; Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051 - Coverage
- No employee-count threshold. Rights depend on the agreement and applicable contract or compensation law.
- Written-contract deadline
- Texas generally applies a 4-year residual limitations period under Tex. Civ. Prac.
More detail
& Rem. Code § 16.051 when no more specific period governs. - Administrative filing
- None, equity, severance, and employment-contract disputes generally proceed in court or contractually required arbitration.
- Forum
- Contract claim or contractually required arbitration
- Damages
- Contract remedies are not governed by Chapter 21 or Title VII's employee-count damages-cap schedule.
What may be available under Texas contract and compensation law.
- Contractual compensation or the value of equity proven due.
- Benefit-of-the-bargain and other contract damages where available and proven.
- Declaratory or injunctive relief in a restrictive-covenant dispute.
- Attorney's fees only where authorized by contract or statute.
- A Texas noncompete must be ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement.
- Its limits as to time, geographic area, and scope must be reasonable and no broader than necessary to protect goodwill or another legitimate business interest.
- A court may reform an overbroad covenant and then enforce it as reformed.
- Healthcare-practitioner covenants have additional rules that should not be generalized to every executive agreement.
Where Texas contract disputes are resolved.
Contract claim or contractually required arbitration
These disputes do not begin with TWC or the EEOC. The agreement may require arbitration; otherwise the contract or restrictive-covenant dispute proceeds in court.
A severance response date may be short even when the lawsuit deadline is longer. A private review identifies the governing documents, forum, and leverage before you sign.
The same conduct can break more than one law.
What happened to you in Texas may also amount to a separate claim, with its own protections and its own deadlines. Each of these is worth checking before anything lapses.