A walk through the rules

The Appellate Arc is a free Law Nerd resource for lawyers handling their first Texas appeal. It asks what happened, applies the rules to the facts you enter, and hands you a report: the routes the rules may open or close, the deadlines they set, and the rules to read next.

How it reads the law

Textually. Every statement comes from the text of a rule or statute and cites it: the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Texas codes, read from the official compilations. Where the text is silent, the report says so. It does not cite cases.

How to read a result

• Potentially available under the cited rule — on the facts you entered, the rule's conditions appear to be met.
• Appears unavailable on the facts entered — a condition the rule sets appears not to be met.
• Unresolved — the answer turns on a fact you have not supplied; the report names the rule that fact controls.

Dates are computed by counting days and moving a last day that falls on a weekend to the next weekday. Legal holidays are not yet applied, so every date is marked provisional — check the court's holiday calendar.

What it is not

A triage report according to the rules. It applies the rules to the facts you enter; it is not legal advice and creates no attorney–client relationship. Situations beyond a first appeal from a Texas trial-court ruling are named on a separate page with the rule to read first.