LEGAL CITATION
Texas Constitution, Article V, Section
1, Texas Government Code Annotated,
Section 22.201
JURISDICTION
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth
District of Texas at Dallas has
jurisdiction over appeals from both
district and county courts located
in Dallas, Collin, Grayson, Hunt,
Rockwall and Kaufman counties. The
Court hears both civil and criminal
appeals.
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HISTORY OF THE APPELLATE
COURTS
Texas achieved its independence
from Mexico in 1836. In 1876, some
40 years later, the Supreme Court
of Texas was still the only appellate
court and had jurisdiction of both
civil and criminal cases and decided
questions of fact as well as of
law.
Our present Constitution,
as ratified in 1876, provided for
two appellate courts, the Supreme
Court, having jurisdiction of civil
cases only, and the Court of Appeals,
having jurisdiction of all criminal
cases and of certain civil cases.
The judicial section was amended
in 1891 to create the Courts of
Civil Appeals as intermediate appellate
courts; and the name of the Court
of Appeals was changed to the Court
of Criminal Appeals.
By an Act approved
1892, the Courts of Civil Appeals
for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd District
were created. They were located
at Galveston, Fort Worth and Austin.
By subsequent legislation, the number
of Courts increased to eleven. The
1st located in Galveston was moved
to Houston in 1892, 2nd in Fort
Worth, 3rd in Austin, 4th San Antonio,
5th Dallas (both in 1893), 6th Texarkana
(1907), 7th Amarillo, 8th El Paso
(both in 1911), 9th Beaumont (1915),
10th Waco (1923), and the 11th Eastland
(1925). During the early 70's, Courts
of Civil Appeals were also added
at Tyler (12th), Corpus Christi
(13th), and the Houston Court split
to become the 1st and 14th.
The Court of Appeals
for the Fifth District of Texas
at Dallas was formally opened on
September
4, 1893.
There was a Chief Justice and two
Associate Justices until 1978 (85
years) when three additional Justices
were authorized. In 1981, criminal
jurisdiction was added and six additional
justices. In 1983, an additional
justice position was created and
the present configuration is 12
Justices and one Chief Justice.
Statewide, there are a total of 80
Appellate Court Justices.
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HOW
APPEALS ARE DECIDED
A case is not decided by the Court
until the record of the proceedings
in the trial court and the briefs
are filed by both parties to the
appeal. The case is then "submitted"
for decision.
Each case is set for submission
before three justices on the Court.
In certain circumstances, cases
may be heard by a panel consisting
of all of the justices (en banc).
Cases are generally set for submission
on Tuesday and Wednesday of each
week and a panel of three justices
hear all of the submitted cases
that are argued.
Each case is assigned to
one of the justices on the panel
to author the opinion. At times,
other justices may author concurring
and/or dissenting opinions.
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COMMUNICATION
WITH THE COURT
Correspondence or other communications
relative to any matter before the
court must be conducted with the
Office of the Clerk of the Court
and may not be addressed to or conducted
with any of the justices or other
members of the court's staff.
Like all
judges, the Justices of the Courts
of Appeals are required by law to
observe very strict ethical standards
-- far stricter than for any other
public official. These standards
absolutely forbid the Justices and
their staffs to talk with anyone
about pending cases or to explain
or elaborate upon an opinion the
Court has issued. We understand
that many people would like to talk
to the Justices and their staffs
about cases, but the laws of Texas
strictly prohibit this practice.
See Tex. R. App. P. 9.6
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