This is the third 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.
There’s a conversation appellate lawyers dread. You call your client to report on a mandamus petition in the
This is the second 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.
The civil appellate docketing statement is outdated, and the case for fixing it is straightforward. It’s a fillable
When a lawyer messes up by using an AI platform that produces mistakes, they might get sanctioned by a judge. When a judge messes up using an AI platform, “it could become precedent. So, it’s a much different conversation.” Judge Scott Schlegel, of Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, speaks from his experience
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
I have clients who don’t know where I live. Not my home address—the city.
That reality became clear when I recently saw a client in person for the first time since before we started working together several years ago. Great client: pays his bills, no drama, easy to work with. Somewhere in the conversation it
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