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The 22nd Annual Advanced Civil Appellate Practice Course is co-sponsored by TexasBar CLE and the Appellate Section. The course will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin on September 4-5, 2008, along with an Appellate Boot Camp on September 3. Section members receive a $50 discount on registration. For a registration brochure, click here. For more details see the CLE Information page.
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For its multi-faceted approach to involving more appellate lawyers in pro bono cases, the Section recently won the Pro Bono Section Award from the Supreme Court Task Force to Expand Legal Services Delivery. By coming in first among the entrants in the medium-size section category, our Section received a $1,000 prize. The prize will be used to enhance the pilot programs (described below) through increased publicity and also to pay for expedited portions of the record, which are used to determine whether potential cases can be placed into the programs to provide pro bono assistance. Section Chair Doug Alexander summed it up best in his recent report: “Our section can be justifiably proud of the substantial contributions it has made to the delivery of pro bono services in the state. I encourage you to become involved in this important initiative. The lack of financial reward is more than offset by the soul-nourishing satisfaction of helping out grateful clients who could otherwise not obtain the kind of appellate expertise that our Section members are able to provide them.”
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Be on the lookout for the next edition of the Appellate Advocate, which will contain an article about Amy Warr and Doug Alexander’s amazing representation of the Yearning for Zion members whose children had been taken into state custody. The article, entitled Yearning for Zion: A Pro Bono Odyssey will be featured in the Summer Edition of the Appellate Advocate.
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The State Bar of Texas Appellate Section has launched two new pilot programs to expand its reach to help low-income Texans with appellate cases. These programs are in partnership with the Supreme Court of Texas and the Third Court of Appeals in Austin. Our goal is to match clients who are financially unable to procure legal representation with volunteer Texas lawyers who agree to serve without expectation of compensation. In both programs, the clients obtain qualified counsel to help them navigate the often complicated appeals process, while the attorneys gain valuable experience and exposure to the appellate courts. We have pooled our volunteers into a database/listserv so that we can disseminate information about pro bono cases more quickly and expedite the matching process. Our volunteers can Sign-Up Here as lead lawyers or as mentors—i.e., providing oversight and input into the client’s case and thereby enhancing the representation. So far, we have over 60 volunteers and have placed four cases in the Supreme Court’s Pilot Program and three cases in the Austin Court of Appeals’ Pilot Program.
The Supreme Court refers cases to the Program when it requests full briefing on the merits and there is at least one party who is proceeding pro se because of his or her financial circumstances. Parties represented by counsel at the petition stage may also request the Appellate Section's Pro Bono Committee to be included in the Program if Court requests merits briefing as well. A full explanation of the proposed Program is available in the attached Proposal that was adopted by the Supreme Court late last year.
A special subcommittee of the Section’s Pro Bono Committee also screens, selects, and finds volunteer lawyers to represent pro bono clients in the Third Court of Appeals Pilot Program. Through this Program, our section’s volunteer lawyers obtain greater appellate experience in, and exposure to, the Austin Court of Appeals, which has indicated that it will give priority to Program cases for oral argument. A description of this Program is found in the Pro Bono Pamphlet.
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At the 2007 Advanced Civil Appellate Seminar, Game Host Scott Rothenberg challenged the audience and a panel of four distinguished appellate practitioners with cutting edge ethics questions; a meal at a fancy Austin restaurant was on the line for the panelists. The panelists, who represented the far corners of our great State of Texas:
Representing the North was Leane Medford.
Representing the East was Ruthie Piller.
Representing the West was Kurt Kuhn.
Representing the South was Tom Crofts.
Ruthie Piller won the $200 gift certificate to a POSH (Etiology: Port Out, Starboard Home) Austin area eatery. See how you fare on these ethics questions by checking out this link.
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At the 2007 Advanced Civil Appellate Seminar, the Appellate Section announced the following winners of the Appellate Song Lyrics Contest: Neil C. McCabe (The O'Quinn Law Firm) for "If I Only Had a Case (or Lament for Lack of Precedent)" (to the tune of "If I Only Had a Brain," by Harold Arlen); Kurt H. Kuhn (Brown McCarroll L.L.P.) for "Makin' New Law" (to tune of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees); and Jody Hughes (Rules Attorney, Texas Supreme Court) and Amy Schumacher with help from a few other Supreme Court Staff Attorneys for 50 Ways To Waive Your Error (derived from "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon). For the contact information on these winners, and the full text of the winning entries, go to the Contests" page.
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On August 28, 2007, the Texas Supreme Court signed on order that increases certain filing fees for the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. The general effect of the Order is to raise fees applicable to the initial filing in an appellate court by $50. For example, the fee for filing a petition for review in the Texas Supreme Court will increase from $75 to $125 and the fee for filing an appeal in the court of appeals will increase from $125 to $175). The Order is effective September 1, 2007. A copy of the Order is posted on the Supreme Court's website here.
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D. Todd Smith of Austin is the new Editor of the Appellate Section newsletter, The Appellate Advocate. Articles and other submissions for The Appellate Advocate should be directed to Todd at mailto:todd@appealsplus.com or (512) 329-2025.
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The Friends of the State Law Library has established the Greenhill-Pope Law Book Fund to honor two former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Texas, Justice Joe R. Greenhill (Chief Justice 1972-1984; Associate Justice 1957-1972) and Justice Jack Pope (Chief Justice 1982-1985; Associate Justice 1964-1982). For further details, click here
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The State Law Library has posted Braden's comparative analysis of the Texas Constitution as well as the 1879-1925 Texas Statutes on its website.
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Our links page lists a wide variety of judicial, administrative, and legislative resources that can help you in your practice. Don't forget to check it for new items.
For example, we recently added the following:
- a link to a compilation of summaries of recent opinions by Texas Appellate Courts concerning the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and Appellate Procedure. To view, go to "Issues Pending/Recent Dispositions" portion of the Links page.
- a series of summaries of Internal Operating Procedures for the various Courts of Appeals in Texas. To view, go to the "Local Rules and Docketing Statements" section, find the specific court in which you have an interest and click on "Internal Operating Procedures".
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Click here for a comprehensive survey of the internal operating procedures of each Texas appellate court.
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