REVERSAL RATES FOR TEXAS SUPREME COURT AND TEXAS COURTS OF
APPEALS DIFFER GREATLY

How many cases does the Texas Supreme Court hear and decide with opinion per year, and
how often does the court reverse and affirm in the cases the Court decides to decide?

BY WOLFGANG P. HIRCZY DE MINO

STATISTICS ON TEXAS SUPREME COURT OPINIONS

Over the course of the most recent Fiscal Year, which ended August 31, 2007, the Texas Supreme Court  
released 170 opinions, approximately 15% more compared to the year before. 40.6% of the FY 2007 opinions
were unsigned per curiam opinions. 36.5% were majority opinions, 11.2% were dissenting opinions and 6.5%
were concurring opinions. The average time from filing to disposition was 195 days. [The Supreme Court does
no report productivity statistics for calendar years. Only fiscal year data is available from the Office of Court
Administration.]

For the Courts of Appeals the number of opinions issued varied from 352 for the Eastland Court of Appeal
(with three members) to 1,567 for Dallas (the largest appellate court with 13 members). The First and
Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, both of which have 9 members like the Supreme Court, but unlike the high court
sit in panels of three, handed down 1,234 and 1,194 opinions, respectively, in the same time period. The Court
of Criminal Appeals issued 575 opinions in Fiscal Year 2007.

TEXAS SUPREME COURT REVERSAL RATE:

In 73% of the granted-PFR cases decided in FY 2007, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the lower court.  
The seven affirmances accounted for only 6.3%.

The opposite pattern is found in the case dispositions of the intermediate Courts of Appeals. In 41.7% of
these appeals, the judgment of the trial court was affirmed. The reversal rate was only 6.3%. Dismissals
accounted for a large share of case dispositions.

It should be noted that the reversal rates of the Supreme Court and the intermediate courts of appeals are not
directly comparable. This is because the courts of appeals - unlike the Supreme Court - do not have
discretionary review and hear both civil and criminal appeals. The Supreme Court decides only those cases it
chooses to hear.

Source: Annual Report of the Texas Judiciary

See related articles on Texas appellate decision / disposition patters:

Texas Supreme Court Per Curiam Opinions: 2008 Mid-Year Tally
Texas Supreme Court's PFR Grant and Reversal Rate for Fiscal Year 2006 [PFR stands for Petition for Review]
Texas Courts of Appeals Reverse Rarely (summary of reversal rates for courts of appeals based on FY 2006
data)