This is the first post in a series I’m calling “Flipping the Script,” inspired by Episode 162 of the Texas Appellate Law Podcast. The series examines what Texas appellate courts could do to make appellate practice better.
Two Texas Supreme Court transparency tools that genuinely helped practitioners do their jobs have disappeared. Both should come
The Texas Supreme Court has directed the Supreme Court Advisory Committee (known as SCAC) to study and propose rules that would eliminate pre-grant merits briefing and prohibit central dockets like those used in Travis and Bexar Counties.
The Court has signaled its interest in the first potential change for a while now, but the second
Like every Texas lawyer licensed since 1988, I’d never known a Texas Supreme Court without Chief Justice Nathan Hecht.
That changed on January 1, 2025.
As widely reported in Texas legal news, Chief Justice Hecht retired from the Court on