As I reported recently, the overall reversal rates for the fourteen courts of appeals is right at about the average from the past few years. There are a few individual courts that had some noteworthy numbers.
The Third Court of Appeals (Austin) historically has a high affirmance rate–perhaps due to the different type of docket that court handles–but this year the court improved on its average. The Texas Supreme Court reversed only 42% of the cases that it agreed to hear from that court. The Austin Court of Appeals’ average reversal rate for the last 5 years is just over 50%.
The Thirteenth Court of Appeals (Corpus Christi) had an 80% reversal rate, which was about the average. This reversal rate is a slight up-tick from its overall average of 70%.
The Houston First District Court of Appeals had a big jump in its reversal rate. In 2017, that court’s reversal rate was 55%, but in 2018, the reversal rate was 80%. The First District Court of Appeals 5-year average still beats the overall average reversal rate.
The Sixth (Texarkana), Ninth (Beaumont), Tenth (Waco), and Twelfth (Tyler) Courts of Appeals had 100% reversal rates, but it must be remembered that these are smaller courts with smaller dockets and there are fewer cases taken up for review, so the numbers for a single year are not statistically significant. Even so, it is notable that the Eleventh (Eastland) Court of Appeals had a 33% reversal rate. Eastland’s overall reversal rate for the last five years is below the average, coming in at 67%.
Reversal rates for the individual courts of appeals are displayed in the graphs below.
