Texas Supreme Court - Part Dos

The Texas Lawyer published a long article this week about the huge backlog of cases that are pending at the Texas Supreme Court, and the length of time it takes to get a decision on a case. In years past, the Texas Supreme Court worked a lot like the US Supreme Court. They took a certain number of cases for review, and decided virtually all of them before they took a summer vacation. There was some carry-over from term to term, but the number of cases carried past the summer vacation were usually cases accepted late in the year.

The Texas Lawyer article describes cases that have been argued, and not decided for over a year. There are also a number of cases where the Court has received briefing, and have not yet decided to accept the case, but the case still pends for a year or more. It is worth knowing that often the cases are pending with judgments earning interest at 10% per annum. Plaintiffs may be getting interest credit, but they still don't have a conclusion to their lawsuit. Defendants also need a resolution, but are paying through the nose to get there. Just by way of example, suppose you are a defendant who has lost a case, and suffered entry of a judgment for $1,000,000. You are tagged with 10% interest. If you put the $1,000,000 in the bank, you could not keep up with the interest tab you are running. But, you appeal anyway. You spend a year at the Court of Appeals level (where it takes time to get the record together, and to write briefs, get to argument, and get a decision). [In the Houston Courts, you cannot expect to get a submission date until a year after the briefs are filed]. You lose, and want to go the Supreme Court. There's little new briefing that needs to be done, and it ought to be about 6 months to find out if the Court will take your case. If the Court takes 2 years to decide whether to take your case, and follows their regular schedule for decision (minimum 1 year), you will have a decision between 4 & 5 years after the trial. This is $400,000 minimum out of your pocket for interest. You might have earned 5% on the money if you set it aside -- so you are down $200,000 just for the right to appeal. The math isn't perfect, but the principle is. It's not just the Plaintiffs who are suffering while the appeal is pending; the Defendants are not being well-served either.

More fodder for judicial elections that would seem to be important campaign issues. Hard to predict whether the general public will care.