Appellate Law

Appellate Rules & Deadlines? There's an App for That

By D. Todd Smith

Dallas family-law specialist Jimmy Verner has provided a new incentive for Blackberry users to switch to an iPhone with VernerLegal's release of two applications directly relevant to Texas appellate lawyers:  Texas Litigation Deadlines (home screen pictured) and Texas Appellate Procedure Rules.  Both are available for purchase via iTunes.

The rules application reproduces the text of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, as revised last year, plus the interpretive notes and comments. The rules are searchable by keywords or through a drill-down menu. This is a very handy app for Texas appellate lawyers who may need to access the rules on the go.

The litigation deadlines app (previously reviewed at  iPhone J.D.) goes beyond simply reproducing rules and assists the user in calculating important pre-trial and post-trial dates.  Enter the trial setting, and the app works backward to tell you when the last day falls for such actions as designating experts, propounding and answering discovery, filing business records affidavits, and amending pleadings (all assuming a Level 2 docket control plan).  Enter the date the trial court signed a judgment or order, and the app calculates the deadline by which one must request findings of fact and conclusions of law (if appropriate), when the trial court's plenary power expires, when post-trial motions are due, and so forth.  The app will e-mail a schedule of deadlines to you at the push of a button.

The post-trial features of the litigation deadlines app focus on critical events that can affect appellate jurisdiction or the appellant's ability to preserve error for review.  But the app doesn't calculate deadlines for filing briefs or pursing rehearing in in either the court of appeals or the Texas Supreme Court.  That might be more than one app should take on, as it would require adding a number of items to the home screen.  In any event, whether in this app or another one— perhaps "Texas Appellate Deadlines"—it's a capability I'd like to see.

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on November 05, 2009 (boomark / email).