The final version of rewritten Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a—the summary judgment rule—became effective March 1, 2026. In this episode, Michael Duncan, an appellate and motions practitioner in Austin who clerked for a Texas Supreme Court justice, unpacks the updated rule with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders. Together, they examine what
In this episode, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders share their list of crowdsourced “pet issues” that appellate courts could address to make practitioners’ lives easier. Their goals, Todd explains, are to both identify areas for improvement and also to give them an opportunity to flesh out those topics in later episodes. If you’re a
In this episode, we examine Texas’s permissive appeals statute and the rulemaking process that shapes how it operates in practice. To guide the discussion, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders welcome Rich Phillips of Holland & Knight, who serves on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee and recently presented a paper on permissive appeals.
The Texas Supreme Court is taking comments on its rewritten summary judgment Rule 166a before the rule goes into effect on March 1. To help practitioners understand its implications, hosts Jody Sanders and Todd Smith provide context for the rewrite and take a deep dive into the rule’s requirements. Tune in as they break down
I was supposed to be in Fort Worth today for what would’ve been the Texas Business Court’s first-ever jury trial. After a final pretrial conference on Friday afternoon, the case settled over the weekend. So instead, I’m writing about the trial that almost was.
Since the Texas Business Court opened its doors on September 1
Keep your brief to 10,000 words, and you’ll get more investment from Texas appellate justices. Those are just a few words of wisdom from Justice David Gunn in this conversation with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders. After a clerkship, where he observed lawyers making mistakes and judges making decisions, Justice Gunn spent over
When an appellate lawyer puts a client in touch with Court Surety Bond Agency, the client is in a tough spot. “They’re going to be facing a verdict, an adverse verdict, or it’s just entered, and they’re coming to us because they need to post a bond” to stay judgment enforcement during appeal, says Arturo Ayala, the
The Texas Supreme Court is on the verge of eliminating the practice of requesting merits briefs before granting petitions for review—a change that will fundamentally reshape how the high court handles cases. In this deep dive into Misc. Docket No. 25-9092, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders break down the proposed rule changes, which
When Mike Whelan invited me onto his new podcast, AI in Practice (presented by Spellbook), I expected we’d discuss legal research tools and workflow automation. We covered those topics, but most of our conversation centered on a bigger question: what expertise means when AI can analyze a 5,000-page record in minutes.
On October 1, 2025, Texas launched automatic case notifications for attorneys statewide, finally solving a problem that had tripped up even diligent lawyers. If you’ve noticed new messages from no-reply@researchtx.com, those are Case Notices, the automatic notification system now built into re:SearchTX, the state’s online case records and alerts platform.
If you’re an attorney of