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Dear All: Well, it’s another beautiful day in the neighborhood, and the courts of appeals have provided us some delightful reading material to enjoy as we sit on our back porches and enjoy the Fall. Table of Contents Though lengthy, you need to read this one, because it hits so many preservation ambush themes: it […]

October 31, 2020 Dear All: Happy Halloween and, come tomorrow morning, Dia de los Muertos.  Remember to set your clocks back this evening before bed. The Courts issued a lot of error preservation decisions this week, and they collectively provide many teachable moments: Table of Contents Remember: if you move for a traditional summary judgment,

October 24, 2020 Dear All: I hope everyone has enjoyed this nice Fall weather.  We don’t have many error preservation cases this week (other than the ones holding that a complaint wasn’t raised in the trial court), but the Fort Worth Court does remind us that, when you present your complaint to the trial judge

October 17, 2020 Dear All: We have a few cases to look at today, and here they are: Table of Contents The failure to provide notice can render a resulting order void, and that voidness complaint cannot be waived Notice/Void Order Subjection matter jurisdiction can be first raised on appeal; standing is a component of

October 20, 2020 Hey, everyone.  Only one error preservation case that I thought you might want to see this week.  It reaffirms that you must present your complaint to the trial judge and get a ruling: Testimony: “The Lunas’ motion referenced Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 270, which allows a trial court to permit additional

October 3, 2020 Dear All: Well, folks, it remains beautiful Fall weather, at least here in Fort Worth, and the outlook for more of the continues for the next 10 days or so.  It is a great time of year for this part of the world. Table of Contents Remember: standing is a matter of

September 26, 2020 Dear All: It seems that Fall is upon us, or at least we seem to have started moving firmly in that direction (at least in the northern half of the state).  I’ll know it for sure when my red oaks start changing colors. In the meantime, here is this week’s offering. Table

September 19, 2020 Dear All: While we had the typical collection of error preservation decisions holding that parties had not raised their complaints in the trial court, we had a couple of cases which held that complaints were not preserved because they were not sufficiently specific. I always find those cases interesting. I initially started

September 12, 2020 Dear All: I hope all of you took the opportunity to watch the State Bar’s Advanced Civil Appellate Seminar this last week, and the Appellate Law 101 Course which preceded it.  Really, really good speakers, papers, and topics.  If you did not have a chance to catch it this last week, watch

September 5, 2020 Dear All: Welcome to a new (fiscal) year for the Texas appellate courts!  Typically, the first couple of weeks of the new fiscal year do not see a lot of error preservation decisions, but not so this year.  I suspect that’s related to a smaller number of appellate filings for last year