This past year presented some unique challenges for the judiciary, and specifically for the Supreme Court of Texas.  The court confronted a pandemic, a ransomeware attack, and some unusual election-year court filings.  In spite of these challenges, the court persevered and performed.  Here’s what my initial calculations show:

  • During the 2020 calendar year, the court

I am crunching the numbers for opinion dispositions by the Supreme Court of Texas for the calendar year 2019.  I expect to have a few blog posts showing how the numbers shake out.  Here’s what the initial numbers show:

  • During the 2019 calendar year, the Supreme Court of Texas disposed of 88 causes.  That’s 10

As most appellate lawyers around Dallas know, the Fifth Court of Appeals has a reputation (well-earned) for disposing of petitions for mandamus in, let’s say, a summary fashion. Specifically, the mandamus denials, with few exceptions, have consisted of three-sentences memorandum opinions, two of which were reserved for the standard introduction ("The facts are well known

The DRI is sponsoring an Appellate Advocacy seminar in Chicago on July 18th and 19th. 

Highlights of the seminar include a moot argument, discussions on embedded appellate counsel at trial, in-house perspectives on appellate practice, and building an appellate practice.  Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and current Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman are