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June 29, 2024 Dearly Beloved: A Texas Supreme Court opinion on rehearing, following an opinion last June 30 on the merits, not only included a lively majority, concurrence, dissent discussion about whether the Court was altering Casteel, it also issued an error preservation decision yesterday concerning Casteel error. Jury Charge (Casteel): “Of course, the appellant […]

May 27, 2024 Dearly Beloved: I’m more than a little late on these but hope they help.  Since late February, SCOTX has handed down at least 5 opinions touching on preservation, dealing with immunity, jury charge, affidavits, and experts: Table of Contents Some complaints can first be raised on appeal–like arguments in support of governmental

February 24, 2024 Dear Friends: This is not really an error preservation ruling, but the Supreme Court did recently remind us that “‘[w]hile it is certainly the better practice to present all arguments to a court of appeals before seeking mandamus in” the Supreme Court, “‘the failure to do so is not a failure to

February 10, 2024 Dear Folks: This is mostly a reminder about the treacherous nature of getting the charge right when it is unclear if the claim is a premises liability claim, or a negligence claim–and the treacherous nature of preserving a complaint about charge error. In a case involving a tragic accident, the Supreme Court

November 24, 2023 Dear All: The pesky day job finally took over my life last Spring, and I had no time to blog on error preservation.  I can’t catch up, but I can at least provide error preservation rulings from the Texas Supreme Court since about last March or so. Table of Contents The Supreme

April 3, 2023 Dear Folks: I just couldn’t send this out on Saturday.  It seems unseemly to send out error preservation stuff on April Fool’s Day. Table of Contents Absent a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to court-appointed counsel, a defendant in a parental rights termination case can first complain about lack of

March 27, 2023 Dear Friends: Table of Contents If a trial court sustains your opponents’ objections to your summary judgment evidence, do you have to object to that ruling in order to preserve a complaint about the ruling for appeal? Some courts say yes, some no–here the Fort Worth Court reaffirms its presence in the

March 18, 2023 Dear Folks: This week catches a couple of older Supreme Court error preservation rulings. Table of Contents Without expressly saying so, the Supreme Court held that a party may raise a complete lack of notice of a summary judgment hearing in a motion for new trial–and here, that included the lack of

March 11, 2023 Dear Folks: Table of Contents Lack of subject matter jurisdiction can first be raised on appeal A complaint that an affidavit is conclusory can first be raised on appeal You have to get a ruling, which can be express or implicit, and can take many forms Continuance Your complaint must be timely

March 7, 2023 Sorry, folks.  I got way behind, trying to keep up with speaking, the ice storm, and the pesky day job. Table of Contents Some complaints can first be raised on appeal–and new arguments in support of a complaint at trial can, as well Government Immunity Expert (Assumptions) Legal and Factual Sufficiency (Bench