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Spring has arrived early in Texas and so has another annual appearance: the statistics for the Texas Supreme Court.
Compiled by Mike Northrup, Cowles Thompson’s head of Appellate practice, this annual review examines recent trends and statistical analysis regarding the Court’s causes decided and reversal rate.
Causes decided are down
If 2024 was a banner year for the number of causes decided by the state’s highest civil appeals court, the court made up for it in 2025. By my count, the court issued opinions disposing of 83 causes, as compared to 124 causes in the prior year. The number of causes usually hovers in the mid-nineties range on average. Whether the number of opinions is down due to some new faces on the court remains to be seen.
The breakdown of the causes indicates that 63 opinions were issued in causes taken on petitions for review, 13 were issued in mandamus proceedings, 5 were issued in causes on questions certified from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and 2 were issued in direct appeals.
The court issued only 20 per curiam (unsigned) opinions, as compared to 48 per curiams issued in 2024. This statistic alone may explain the disparity in productivity between 2024 and 2025.
Reversal rate remains high
The reversal rate remains high. Last year, the reversal rate for granted petitions for review was 88%. This year’s reversal rate was 86%. The average reversal rate generally hovers around 75%.
Statements issued by individual justices expressing non-binding views
One trend that continued from 2023 and 2024 was the issuance of opinions authored by a single justice, sometimes joined by a second justice wherein the authoring justice was expressing his or her views upon the court’s denial of a petition for review or petition for writ of mandamus. Of course, these individual statements do not carry the force of law, but in some cases the writings may telegraph practitioners to be on the watch for the recurrence of some issue.
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