This term the Texas Supreme Court issued a succession of rulings favoring arbitration agreements and refusing to recognize various defenses. It rejected a claim of unconscionability due to excessive costs, held a nonsignatory bound to arbitrate by direct-benefits estoppel, and held that incorporation of AAA Commercial Rules into a contract constitutes a clear and
Texas Supreme Court
Opinion vs. Memorandum Opinion: 2022 Statistics
I continue to track the statistics on the number of petitions for review granted by the Texas Supreme Court where the court of appeals wrote an “Opinion,” versus those where the court of appeals wrote a “Memorandum Opinion.” My prior years’ statistical analysis have dispelled the notion that if the court of appeals writes a…
Texas Supreme Court Statistics for 2022 are here
I have completed the statistical calculations for the Texas Supreme Court’s cause disposition for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022. The breakdown of broader statistics is shown below. Additional calculations and numbers will be posted in the coming weeks.
- During the 2022 calendar year, the Court disposed of 95 causes,
Miscellaneous Statistics from the Texas Supreme Court’s 2021 Dispositions
My review of the statistics from the Texas Supreme Court’s dispositions in 2021 brought an assortment of facts to the forefront that are worth highlighting.
- For the second year in a row, the court accepted a significantly higher number of petitions for writ of mandamus.
- As the number of petitions for writ of mandamus reviewed
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Opinions vs. Memorandum Opinions on the Texas Supreme Court’s Docket
Parties (and their counsel) to a court of appeals’ disposition of an appeal sometimes worry that if the court disposed of the appeal by issuing a “Memorandum Opinion” instead of an “Opinion,” the chances of obtaining review by the Texas Supreme Court will be diminished. Statistics in recent years have helped to dispel this concern. …
Texas Supreme Court Statistics for 2021 are here
I ran the statistics for the Texas Supreme Court’s cause disposition for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021, and the breakdown of broader statistics is shown below. As with prior years, I will follow up with additional data as I crunch more of the numbers.
- During the 2021 calendar year,
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Section 18.001 Counter-affidavit Update
Early last year, I wrote about the split among the Texas courts of appeals on whether mandamus relief is available to challenge a trial court’s ruling striking a Section 18.001 counteraffidavit. Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 18.001 counteraffidavits are used by defendants to contest the reasonableness and necessity of a claimant’s affidavit proof of…
Texas Supreme Court statistics for 2020
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
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Authenticating Public Records
Cases involving questions on the admissibility of evidence rarely rise to the level of importance that the Texas Supreme Court gets involved. Yet these questions routinely arise in the trial courts and are fundamental to trial practice. The Texas Supreme Court recently examined an evidence question involving the admissibility of public records.
In Fleming v. …
The Absurdity Doctrine Disfavored by the Courts
The Fifth Circuit and the Texas Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the high bar that must be met to find that the plain language of a statute violates the absurdity doctrine.
Under the absurdity doctrine a court will construe a statute by applying the plain meaning of the words used unless it would lead to absurd…