With the close of 2018, the statistics for opinion disposition by the Texas Supreme Court are in.  I’m still crunching numbers and will follow this post with additional statistics, but here’s what some of the preliminary data show for the 2018 calendar year:

  • 98 causes were disposed of.  That’s the highest in 5 years and 14 more than in 2017 and 2016.
  • 24 per curiam (unsigned) opinions were issued.  That number is about the same as in the prior two years, so it appears that the bulk of the increase in overall causes disposed of came from matters disposed of with oral argument
  • 11 of the causes disposed of were original proceedings (10 mandamuses and 1 original petition).  This number is up slightly from prior years and may explain in part the higher disposition rate overall.
  • The overall reversal rate for cases taken on petition for review is within the average for the last few years, coming in at 78.4%.

I’ll be rolling out additional statistical information in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Photo of Mike Northrup Mike Northrup

Mike Northrup is the chair of the appellate practice group at Cowles & Thompson, P.C. He is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and is a former Chair of the Appellate Law Section of the Dallas…

Mike Northrup is the chair of the appellate practice group at Cowles & Thompson, P.C. He is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and is a former Chair of the Appellate Law Section of the Dallas Bar Association. He is also a former briefing attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas.

Practice Areas

  • Civil Appeals
  • Labor and Employment Law
  • Insurance Law
  • Municipal Law

Professional Associations

  • Dallas Bar Association, Appellate Law Section
  • Defense Research Institute
  • College of the State Bar of Texas
  • State Bar of Texas, Appellate Section
  • Texas Aggie Bar Association

Education

  • JD, Texas Tech University School of Law (1988)
  • B.S., (Political Science), Texas A&M University (1985)

Bar Admissions

  • State Bar of Texas
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • United States District Court, Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of Texas