Appellate Law

Texas Supreme Court Docket Analysis

By D. Todd Smith

At the recent Advanced Appellate Seminar, Texas Supreme Court watcher and appellate practitioner Pam Baron presented a paper summarizing her analysis of the Court's docket as of September 1, 2008.  With Pam's permission, I am making her paper available here.

The paper answers a number of questions we appellate practitioners get from clients.  Here are some of her observations:

• For the first time in eight years, the Court ended the term with fewer cases than were left at the end of the prior term.
   
• With the number of overall filings down, the statistical chances of getting a petition granted have risen to about 15 percent.  The grant rate nearly doubles in cases in which the Court requests full briefing.
   
• The average time for a decision on a petition for review is 166 days.  Mandamus petitions average 123 days.
   
• In argued cases, the average time from initial filing to issuance of opinion is 28 months, ranging from a low of 11 months to a high of 54 months.

Pam also takes a detailed look at the Court's docket by subject matter.  She further identifies the cases on what she calls the "shadow docket"—those pending for more than 12 months without a decision to grant or deny.

Texas Lawyer mentioned Pam's paper in today's issue.

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on September 15, 2008 (boomark / email).