The Collin County Bar Appellate Section will join with the Collin County Bar Association for a meeting at noon on May 15, 2009 at Ralph & Kacoo’s in Allen.  Our speaker will be Justice Douglas S. Lang from the Dallas Court of Appeals.  Justice Lang will discuss his book Deeds, Not Words, professionalism, and the relationships that

On Friday, April 17th and Saturday, April 18th, the Texas Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee will be meeting to discuss proposed changes to the Texas Rules of Procedure.  Among the proposed changes are changes that will permit electronic filings in the appellate courts.

For more information on the location and time of the meeting, click

Ever wonder what it takes to get an Appellant’s appeal dismissed?  The Dallas Court of Appeals has given us the answer in at least two circumstances, one involving defective briefing and one involving a failure to make arrangements to pay for an appellate record.

In Bridwell v. McMillin, the Court granted what appears to be a 60-day extension of time to file an Appellant’s Brief.  Later, the Court granted a second extension of time to file the Appellant’s Brief–this time for 30 days.  The Appellant filed his Appellant’s Brief 9 days early, but it contained a number of briefing deficiencies.  The Court ordered the Appellant to correct the briefing deficiencies within 10 days or his appeal would be dismissed.  By letter, the Appellant requested that the Court treat his defective brief as his amended brief–in effect refusing to correct the deficiencies.  In response, the Appellee moved to dismiss the appeal for non-compliance with the Court’s order.  The Court granted the motion to dismiss.  The Court’s Memorandum Opinion in Bridwell can be found at this link.Continue Reading Appellate Dismissals in Dallas

To all you appellate gurus out there, here’s an appellate procedure question: When does the court of appeals’ mandate issue when the Texas Supreme Court has denied a petition for review and subsequently denied a motion for rehearing of the petition for review?

TRAP 18 controls issuance of the appellate mandate.  The timetable is based