Analysis of Activity for the Year Ended August 31, 1998

Overview

There are 14 Courts of Appeals in Texas which, since September 1, 1981, have heard intermediate appeals in civil and criminal cases.

Courts of Appeals are located in Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Texarkana, Amarillo, El Paso, Beaumont, Waco, Eastland, Tyler, Corpus Christi, and Houston. Houston has two Courts of Appeals. Each court has jurisdiction over a geographical district. The districts of the Houston courts are coterminous.

The number of justices for each court ranges from 3 each in five courts to 13 in Dallas, which is the largest. There are 80 justices statewide.

Pending Caseloads On The Rise

As Figure 1 below indicates, the total pending caseloads of the 14 Courts of Appeals increased for the twelfth consecutive year. The 11,575 cases pending at the end of fiscal year 1998 marked a more than 110 percent increase from the 5,355 cases pending at the end of fiscal year 1986. The number of total cases pending on August 31, 1998 increased 7.1 percent from the 10,809 cases pending at the beginning of the fiscal year; the pending caseload has increased an average of 6.8 percent per year over the past twelve years.

Of the 7,528 criminal cases pending in the Courts of Appeals at the end of fiscal year 1998, 39.3 percent had been on the docket less than 6 months, 30.2 percent from 6 to 12 months, and 30.5 percent more than 12 months.

Of the 4,047 civil cases pending in the Courts of Appeals at the end of fiscal year 1998, 44.7 percent had been on the docket less than 6 months, 31.7 percent from 6 to 12 months, and 23.6 percent for more than 12 months.

Cases Added to the Dockets

A contributor to the increasing number of pending cases is the also increasing number of cases added to the dockets of the Courts of Appeals. The number of cases added has risen relatively steadily since fiscal year 1994, averaging almost seven percent per year. Criminal case filings have increased at a higher rate, 37.1 percent since 1994, than civil cases, which have risen approximately 22.3 percent over the same period.

A total of 11,566 new cases were filed in the Courts of Appeals during the fiscal year, which included 6,375 criminal cases and 5,191 civil cases. This was an increase of 7.6 percent from the 10,754 total new cases filed in fiscal year 1997. New criminal cases increased 4.7 percent from the 6,088 filed in fiscal year 1997 and civil cases increased 11.3 percent from the 4,666 filed in fiscal year 1997.

Figure 2 below shows how the number of cases added to the dockets of the Courts of Appeals is increasing.

Cases Disposed

The courts disposed of 11,736 cases during the fiscal year, an average of 147 dispositions (88 criminal and 59 civil) per justice. The 4,722 civil dispositions and 7,014 criminal dispositions marked a 3 percent increase over total dispositions in the previous fiscal year. Figure 2 above shows how the number of cases disposed by the Courts of Appeals has increased.

Criminal Dispositions

Criminal dispositions increased 4.2 percent from 6,732 dispositions in fiscal year 1997 to 7,014 dispositions in fiscal year 1998. The average lapse of time between the filing of a criminal case in a Court of Appeals and its dispositions was 12.1 months; the average lave of time between submission of a criminal appeal and its disposition was 1.8 months.

A case is "submitted" when the court hears oral argument or when it is referred to the justices for formal consideration if no oral argument is heard.

Civil Dispositions

In fiscal year 1998, there were 4,722 civil dispositions by the Courts of Appeals, an increase of 4.5 percent from the 4,517 civil dispositions in fiscal year 1997. The average lapse of time between the filing of a civil case in a Court of Appeals and its dispositions was 8.5 months; the average lave of time between submission of a civil appeal and its disposition was 2.6 months.

Opinions Written

In fiscal year 1998, the justices of the Courts of Appeals wrote 11,457 opinions, 9.3 percent more than the 10,480 written in 1997.

The courts reversed, at least in part, the decision of the trail court in 10.4 percent of the cases disposed, compared to 10.6 percent in fiscal year 1997.

Transferred Cases

While the 14 Courts of Appeals operate to a large extent as autonomous courts in specific geographic districts, some equalization of the dockets occurs by transfer of cases among the courts on order of the Supreme Court, pursuant to statutory authority. The Supreme Court transferred a total of 231 civil cases and 565 criminal cases among the courts in fiscal year 1998, compared with 193 civil cases and 570 criminal cases transferred in fiscal year 1997. In addition, the two Houston Courts (1st and 14th) are authorized by statute to transfer cases between those courts. Figure 3 below demonstrates how fiscal year 1998 transfers affected the number of cases added per justice for each of the courts.

The following transfers between the Courts of Appeals were made on orders of the Supreme Court:

New Performance Measures Implemented

In fiscal year 1998, the Courts of Appeals began tracking and reporting to the Legislature a new set of key performance measures: the clearance rate, the average percent of cases under submission for more than 12 months, and the average percent of cases filed but not disposed for more than 24 months.

Clearance Rate

The clearance rate addresses the issue of an increasing pending caseload from the perspective that the number of pending cases increases when the number of cases filed and added exceeds the number of cases disposed during the year. The clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of cases disposed by the number of cases filed and added, and is expressed as a percent. For fiscal years 1998 and 1999, the courts established a target of 100 percent, indicating that they expect to dispose of at least as many cases as have been added to their docket. The statewide average clearance rate for fiscal year 1998 was 94.6 percent.

Average Percent of Cases Under Submission for More than 12 Months

The average percent of cases under submission for more than 12 months focuses on the average amount of older cases under submission. This measure is an average of all month-end results for the fiscal year, and is calculated by taking the number of cases which have not been disposed of within 12 months from the date of submission divided by the total number of cases under submission as of the end of each month. For fiscal years 1998 and 1999, the courts established a target of 0 percent, indicating that they expect to dispose of all cases within 12 months of the date of submission. The statewide average percent of cases under submission for more than 12 months was 2.25 percent.

Average Percent of Cases Filed But Not Yet Disposed for More than 24 Months

The average percent of cases filed but not yet disposed for more than 24 months focuses on the average amount of older cases pending cases. This measure is an average of all month-end results for the fiscal year, and is calculated by taking the number of cases which have not been disposed of within 24 months from the date of filing divided by the total number of cases filed but not disposed as of the end of each month. For fiscal years 1998 and 1999, the courts established a target of 0 percent, indicating that they expect to dispose of all cases within 24 months of the date of filing. The statewide average percent of cases filed but not yet disposed for more than 24 months was 2.51 percent.

Return to 1998 Annual Report