An appeal is a highly-specialized legal proceeding, both substantively and procedurally. It requires a different legal skill set from a trial. There are fourteen geographically-limited intermediate courts of appeals in Texas, each with a different set of local rules (both written and unwritten). The busiest courts of appeals, in Dallas and Houston, frequently transfer their cases out to other courts of appeals in the state. It is important that you have an appellate attorney who practices all over the state and is familiar with the different rules, procedures, judges, and staffs.
An appeal in Texas may move slowly, but it has distinct stages of effort (and costs incurred), which can be predicted and budgeted for. The initial phase involves preserving error in the trial court with post-trial motions. It is followed quickly by perfecting the appeal, ordering the reporter's and clerk's records, and suspending enforcement of the judgment, so there is a period of intense activity for the first one to three months following a trial. That is followed by two to three months of waiting for the record to be prepared and filed. Next, in the briefing phase, there will be intensive activity on the part of the lawyer, in researching and writing the opening brief, then analyzing and responding to the he opponent's brief. Both sides may get extensions of time to file their briefs, so this phase will last from 3 to 8 months.
After the briefs have all been filed, several months of inactivity follow while the parties are waiting for the court to either set an oral argument date or decide to submit the case on the briefs only, without oral argument. If no oral argument is requested or granted, an opinion is usually released within two to nine months. If oral argument occurs, there is, again, a period of waiting, with little activity. This may be more than a year, depending on how backlogged the individual court of appeals is and how complex or unique the legal issues are. Once the court of appeals issues an opinion, one or both parties may file a motion for rehearing in an attempt to change that opinion. In the federal system, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans hears appeals from the District Courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. It operates in a similar fashion but generally moves more quickly than the Texas state system. A further appeal to the supreme court of Texas is a possibility in most cases.
The intermediate courts of appeals must take all cases brought to them. They have both civil and criminal jurisdiction. They are bound by their own prior decisions and the decisions of the United States and Texas Supreme Courts, but they use decisions of their sister courts as persuasive authority. The final stage of appeal from civil and criminal cases in Texas state court is split. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals handles only criminal cases, and the Texas Supreme Court handles only civil cases. Its jurisdiction is discretionary, that is, it decides which cases it will take, roughly about 15% of the cases brought to it. The Texas Supreme Court is interested in cases that are "important to the jurisprudence of the State" - cases in which the decision is likely to affect future cases because of similar facts or legal issues. The Supreme Court also is interested in cases in which the different intermediate courts of appeals have reached different conclusions on the same issues.
The process of attracting the attention of the Supreme Court of Texas and convincing it to take your case is a highly specialized one that requires an attorney with considerable appellate experience and ability. It takes a great deal of time to stay abreast of the Texas Supreme Court's decisions, procedures, interests, and inner workings.
The United States and Texas Supreme Courts often consider briefs from groups or individuals that are not parties to the case. These are called amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs, and they inform the Court about a particular industry or organization and how its decisions may affect other parties and future cases. There is a great deal of skill involved in filing a brief that will aid the Court in its decision-making process as well as helping the party who sponsors the amicus curiae brief. That party may be an industry group, an individual with a similar case, a chamber of commerce or business development organization, a group of interested citizens, or many other types of interested individuals and entities.