Art. 22.06 CITATION BY PUBLICATION

Here's what this rule means in plain terms.

If someone signs a bond as a surety (meaning they promise to pay if the defendant doesn't show up to court) and that person moves out of state, doesn't have a fixed address, or can't be located, the county still needs a way to notify them about court proceedings. This rule gives prosecutors a solution.

The district attorney or county attorney can ask the county clerk in writing to issue a citation. Instead of having someone hand-deliver this notice to the surety, it gets published, usually in a newspaper. This works like it does in civil court cases, where publishing a notice serves as legal proof that someone was informed, even if they couldn't be reached directly.

This matters because it means a surety cannot avoid their financial responsibility just by disappearing or living somewhere else. If they backed a defendant's bond and that defendant skipped court, the surety can still be held accountable through this published notice, even if they never received it directly in person.