Last year–the calendar year from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024–was a productive year for the state’s highest civil court. By my count, the court disposed of 124 causes during the year. This is a significant increase above the court’s usual disposition rate. Some of the court’s production might be attributable to the departure of Chief Justice Hecht. With his departure, there was a year-end flurry of opinions released possibly due to an effort to tie up some loose ends before a change in the makeup of the court. The other explanation may be that there was an uptick in the number of per curiam (unsigned) opinions. The court does not have to commit as many resources to disposing of a matter when it does so by per curiam opinion.

The big picture

The breakdown of matters disposed of consists of 100 petitions for review, four (4) certified questions from the Fifth Circuit, and twenty (20) original proceedings.

Per curiam opinions

The court issued forty-eight (48) per curiam opinions. In an unusual application of its per curiam disposition, five (5) petitions for writ of mandamus were denied by per curiam opinion, and one petition for review was denied by per curiam opinion. In previous years, when the court has issued an opinion upon the denial of a petition for writ of mandamus, the court has issued a signed opinion. This use of per curiam opinion may signal a new trend in the manner by which the court denies mandamus petitions. Also unusual for the unsigned method of disposition is the fact that there was a separately-issued signed concurrence (joined by another justice) in one of the per curiam dispositions.

Unanimity

There was a high degree of unanimity in 2024. Excluding per curiam opinions, sixty (60) of the opinions from the court were unanimous.

High reversal rate

The reversal rate for granted petitions for review jumped in 2024. Eighty-eight percent of the petitions for review granted resulted in a reversal of the court of appeals opinion. This may be the highest annual reversal rate I can recall seeing. Previously 2022 had been the high mark in recent years, coming in at 86% reversals. The reversal rate returned to its average in 2023, at 76%. Notably, the court does not generally accept a petition for review just to affirm the court of appeals, so one would expect the reversal rate to be high.

More trends

Another interesting trend from 2023 continued in 2024. There were a number of opinions authored by individual justices on the denial of a petition for review, denial of a petition for writ of mandamus, denial of a motion for rehearing, and on the granting of a motion for emergency relief. Of course, none of these individually-authored opinions carries any force of law, but clearly some of the justices had views to express in these instances.

I will report more statistical information collected from the 2024 year in the coming weeks ahead. Stay tuned.