The Texas Courts of Appeals are part of the Texas judicial system. In Texas, all cases appealed from district and county courts, criminal and civil, go to one of the fifteen intermediate courts of appeals, with one exception: death penalty cases. The latter are taken directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the court of last resort for criminal matters in the State of Texas. The highest court for civil and juvenile matters is the Texas Supreme Court. The First through the Fourteenth Courts of Appeals have geographically-based jurisdiction. The Fifteenth Court of Appeals, established in 2023, has exclusive statewide jurisdiction for civil appeals involving state government institutions and their employees and officers; challenges to the constitutionality of a state statute; and, appeals from the Texas Business Court.
The number of justices on the Supreme Court (SCOTX) and the Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is set at nine each by the Texas Constitution, while the number of justices in the intermediate courts of appeals are set by statute and vary greatly, dependent on historical case filings, so that each court can timely adjudicate the volume of cases regularly before them. The total number of intermediate appellate court seats currently stands at 83: Three justices: Texarkana, El Paso, Waco, Eastland, and Tyler; as well as the Fifteenth Court of Appeals Four justices: Amarillo and Beaumont Six justices: Austin and Corpus Christi-Edinburg Seven justices: Fort Worth and San Antonio Nine justices: Houston-1st and Houston-14th Thirteen justices: Dallas
Appellate courts consisting of more than three justices hear and decide cases in panels of three. Those courts with more than three justices sit in rotating panels and do not consistently sit with the same justices. In some cases, the justices will hear arguments from the parties' lawyers in what is called oral argument. The lawyers present their arguments one at a time, typically for twenty minutes each, followed by a brief rebuttal from the appellant, the party complaining about the decision of the lower court. During the lawyers' presentations, the justices commonly interject with questions that the lawyers answer on the spot. On rare occasions, all the justices of a court of appeals sit together en banc to reconsider a panel decision or to assure consistency in that court's jurisprudence. En banc consideration is 'disfavored" according to appellate rule 41.2(b). The en banc process is also used to overrule prior precedent of the same court which its panels would otherwise follow. The precedents established by a court of appeals are binding on the lower courts in its own district, but not in others.
The various courts of appeals occasionally but rarely hand down conflicting rulings on the same legal issue. In large part, the Texas Supreme Court (in civil cases) or Court of Criminal Appeals (in criminal cases) exist to resolve these rare conflicts and to set forth consistent legal precedent for the state's litigants. Decisions of the two courts of last resort on questions of law are binding on all state courts, and are also followed by federal courts when they hear cases governed by Texas state law.
The federal courts sitting in Texas apply state law when the case is not controlled by federal law or by the law of another jurisdiction based contractual choice of law or other basis for application of another's jurisdiction's law. Not infrequently the federal district courts sitting in Texas and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals make guesses as to how the Texas Supreme Court would rule on an issue of state law that is still unsettled due to a conflict among the intermediate courts of appeals.Boren v. U.S. Nat'l Bank Ass'n, 807 F.3d 99, 105-6 (5th Cir. 2015)(Where, as here, the proper resolution of the case turns on the interpretation of Texas law, we are bound to apply Texas law as interpreted by the state's highest court." Am. Int'l Specialty Lines Ins. Co. v. Rentech Steel LLC, 620 F.3d 558, 564 (5th Cir.2010) (internal quotations and alterations omitted). Because the Texas Supreme Court has not decided whether a lender may abandon its acceleration of a loan by its own unilateral actions and, if so, what actions it must take to effect abandonment, we must make an "Erie guess" as to how the Court would resolve this issue. Id.) Such an issue may also be referred to the Texas Supreme Court by certified question,TEX. CONST. Art. V, § 3-c(a) ("The supreme court [has] jurisdiction to answer questions of state law certified from a federal appellate court."); TEX. R. APP. P. 58 (certified questions of law). but this procedure is rarely employed.
Like the members of the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Justices of the intermediate Texas Courts of Appeals are elected in partisan elections to six-year terms. Some, however, are initially appointed by the Texas Governor to fill vacancies and then run as incumbents in the next election.
In a small number of instances, (4-6% in recent years),COA Activity 2016 txcourts.govCOA Activity 2017 txcourts.govCOA Activity 2018 txcourts.govCOA Activity 2019 txcourts.govCOA Activity 2020 txcourts.gov the Texas Supreme Court transfers a case from one court to another. Under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 41.3, the transferee court must apply controlling precedents of the court from which the case was sent, if they exist. All courts of appeals retain the discretion to recall retired justices to assist writing any backlog of opinions in the court.“Tex. 1st. Admin. Jud. Reg. L. R. 5”: Rule 5 - JUDICIAL SERVICE BY RETIRED AND FORMER JUDGES, (As amended through December 17, 2024). Retrieved March 3, 2025.
In 2023, a law was passed creating a new appellate level court with jurisdiction over appeals from the new Texas business courts and state government related litigation, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. In June 2024, the Governor began appointing judges to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. These courts will be open for cases on September 1, 2024. In August 2024, the Texas Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the appellate business court's creation. In addition to hearing appeals from certain defined case types brought in the new Texas trial level business courts, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals will hear appeals statewide in cases brought by or against a wide range of state government entities, against state officers and employees arising out of their official conduct, and "matters in which a party to the proceeding files a petition, motion, or other pleading challenging the constitutionality or validity of a state statute or rule, and the attorney general is a party to the case."
History
From 1836, when Texas gained independence from Mexico, until 1876, the Supreme Court of Texas served as the state's only appellate court. During this period, the court had jurisdiction over both civil and criminal cases and was responsible for deciding questions of fact as well as law. This centralized structure remained in place for several decades as the state's legal system developed.
Establishment and early development (1891–1925)
Courts of civil appeals in Texas were established in 1891 by constitutional amendment to help handle the increasing load of the court system. They had jurisdiction to hear appeals and mandamus petitions of any civil case from their region, with the regions decided by the Legislature. The amendment provided that three-judge courts of appeals were to be created by Legislature, and in 1892, the Legislature created 3 courts of appeals: The First Court of Civil Appeals in Galveston, the Second Court of Civil Appeals in Fort Worth, and the Third Court of Civil Appeals in Austin. In 1893, the Legislature created the Fourth Court of Civil Appeals in San Antonio out of territory taken from the first and third courts, and the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. In 1907, the Legislature created the Sixth Court of Civil Appeals in Texarkana. Then in 1911, the Seventh Court of Civil Appeals in Amarillo and the Eighth Court of Civil Appeals in El Paso were created. Soon after that, the Ninth Court of Civil Appeals was created in Beaumont in 1915, the Tenth was created in Waco in 1923, and the Eleventh was created in Eastland in 1925.
Relocation and mid-20th century expansion (1957–1970s) In 1957, after Hurricane Audrey severely damaged the Galveston County Courthouse,the Legislature moved the First Court of Appeals to Houston (where it sits today) and required Harris County to provide facilities.
It was not until the 1960s that any more courts were created. In 1963, the Legislature established the Twelfth Court of Civil Appeals in Tyler and the Thirteenth in Corpus Christi. The Fourteenth Court was established in Houston in 1967, exercising concurrent jurisdiction with the First Court.
A law was passed in 1975 allowing the Thirteenth Court to "transact its business at the county seat of any of the counties within its district, as the Court shall determine it necessary and convenient..." A branch of the court was created in Edinburg, and the court today operates in both Edinburg and Corpus Christi.
In 1977, the legislature increased the number of judges of various courts and authorized courts of appeals to sit in "panels" of not fewer than three judges.
Jurisdictional changes (1981–1985) Until 1981, all criminal appeals were handled exclusively by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, with no intermediate appellate courts.
On September 1, 1981, a significant shift in the role of the Texas' intermediate appeals courts occurred when all Courts of Civil Appeals were granted jurisdiction over criminal cases, with the exception of crimes involving capital punishment, which continued to fall under the jurisdiction of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
In 1985, a constitutional amendment formally changed the designation of these courts from "Courts of Civil Appeals" to simply "Courts of Appeals," reflecting their expanded jurisdiction over both civil and criminal cases.
Shifts in the courts (2019)
In January 2019, a large number of newly elected justices took office, which required panels that included incumbents who were defeated in the November 2018 elections to be reconstituted, though in practice, this reconstitution caused little disruption in court productivity. Because of similar turnover in many metropolitan trial courts, the court procedure rules required pending mandamus cases to be abated and remanded for the new trial court judge to reconsider the challenged order of his or her predecessor.
The overall effect of the November 2018 Democratic sweep of the appellate courts in Houston, Dallas, and Austin was to make the intermediate appellate judiciary more diverse in terms of party affiliation, gender, and race/ethnicity, as can be seen by comparing the demographic statistics reported by the Office of Court Administration for 2018 and 2019.
Jurisdictions and justices
There are fourteen geographically-based appellate districts, each of which encompasses multiple counties and is presided over by a Texas Court of Appeals denominated by number:Tex. Govt. Code Ann. §22.201 (Vernon 2005) The counties of Gregg, Rusk, Upshur, and Wood are in the jurisdictions of both the Sixth and Twelfth Courts, while Hunt County is in the jurisdiction of both the Fifth and Sixth Courts. The Fifteenth Court of Appeals has state-wide jurisdiction over civil appeals involving the state, appeals from the business court, and constitutional appeals.
First Court of Appeals First Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (formerly Galveston) — covers Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Waller, and Washington counties