Rule 4: 15th Court of Appeals Citation

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Currently, Greenbook Rule 4 (Rule 4.3) requires that the citation include a reference to the city in which the particular court sits. With the

(Tex. App.—1st Dist., pet. history)

4 Courts of Appeals

Format Guide

Current Cases

Cooper v. Tex. Dep’t of Human Res., 691 S.W.2d 807, 808 (Tex. App—Austin 1985, writ ref’d n.r.e.).

Short Form

Cooper, 691 S.W.2d at 808.

Memorandum Opinions

Richardson v. Kays, No. 02-03241-CV, 2003 WL 22457054, at *2 (Tex. App—Fort Worth Oct. 30, 2003, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op.).

Short Form

Richardson, 2003 WL 22457054, at *2.

Opinions Not Designated for Publication

Young v. State,

Recent Decisions

Klentzman v. Brady,

 

4.1 Current Cases—1981 to Date

4.1.1 Basic Citation Form

Cite all reported courts of appeals cases decided on or after September 1, 1981, only to the South Western Reporter. A complete citation must contain the case name; a citation to the volume and page of the South Western Reporter; the specific page containing the cited material; a parenthetical, including the name of the court (“Tex. App.”), an em dash (there is no space on either side of the em dash) followed by the district number of that court (Rule 4.3), the date, the writ history or petition history (Rules 4.4 and 4.5), and a notation of interlocutory orders, if appropriate (Rule 4.7); parenthetical information regarding weight of authority, if appropriate (Rule 4.1.2); and any subsequent history (Rule 4.6):

Cooper

IPCO

Reames

Case names should be cited in accordance with The Bluebook Rule 10.2.

Practice Tip

Both The Bluebook and The Greenbook distinguish between three types of dashes: the em dash, the en dash, and the hyphen. For more on how and when to use which particular dash see generally Texas Law Review Manual on Usage & Style 1.27–1.33.

4.1.2 Parenthetical Information Regarding Weight of Authority

In both criminal and civil cases, a majority of the justices who consider the case must determine whether the opinion will be signed by a justice or will be per curiam. These opinions must also be designate

4.3 District Numbers

4.3.1 General Rules

A complete court of appeals citation must include a reference to the court’s district number. Formerly, a reference to the city in which the particular court sits was required. The district numbers are (by city where each court is located): (by district number):

1st Dist. (Houston, formerly Galveston)

2d Dist. (Fort Worth)

3d Dist. (Austin)

4th Dist. (San Antonio)

5th Dist. (Dallas)

6th Dist. (Texarkana)

7th Dist. (Amarillo)

8th Dist. (El Paso)

9th Dist. (Beaumont)

10th Dist. (Waco)

11th Dist. (Eastland)

12th Dist. (Tyler)

13th Dist. (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)

14th Dist. (Houston)

15th Dist. (Austin*)

Practice Tip

The Fifteenth Court of Appeals began operating on September 1, 2024. Although it sits in Austin, it has statewide jurisdiction over (? … what to say here).

 

Rule 7.1 & 7.2: Abbreviations for County

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Proposed Change:

• “None of those are the BB abbreviation for “county,” which is “cnty.” I suggest picking one abbreviation (preferably “cnty.”) and using it for all courts.”

7.2 Court Abbreviations

Abbreviate court names in accordance with The Bluebook Table T7:

• Constitutional County Courts are abbreviated, for example, “Smith Const. Cnty. Ct.”
• County Courts at Law are abbreviated, for example, “Collin Cnty. Ct. at Law No. 2.”
• Statutory Probate Courts are abbreviated, for example,“Bexar Cty. Prob. Ct. No. 2.”

Rule 7.2: Tex. Bus. Citation

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Practice Tip

The Texas court structure. Contains three four levels of trial courts: local trial courts of limited jurisdiction, county trial courts of limited jurisdiction, the business court, and state trial courts of general and special jurisdiction.

 

The local-level courts consist of Justice Courts, which are created by the Texas Constitution, and Municipal Courts, which are created by the Texas Legislature. Both courts have limited jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters, and Municipal Courts have exclusive jurisdiction over the enforcement of city ordinances.

 

The county-level courts consist of Constitutional County Courts, County Courts at Law, and Statutory Probate Courts. The Texas Constitution requires one Constitutional County Court per county to oversee matters including minor civil, criminal, juvenile, and probate proceedings, as well as appeals from the local-level courts. To relieve the caseload of the Constitutional County Courts of larger counties, the Legislature has created the Statutory Probate Courts, which have original and exclusive jurisdiction over probate matters in the counties where they exist, and the County Courts at Law, which generally have concurrent jurisdiction, although jurisdiction varies under the statutes creating these courts.

 

The business court is created by the Texas Legislature under Tex. Gov. Code ch. 25A. The business court is a statewide, specialized trial court of limited jurisdiction created to resolve certain complex business disputes, which the court has concurrent jurisdiction over. The court is composed of eleven geographical divisions based on the Administrative Judicial Regions; however, as of the date of publication, only the First (Dallas), Third (Austin), Fourth (San Antonio), Eighth (Fort Worth), and Eleventh (Houston) are operational.

 

Finally, the District Courts are the only statutory trial courts of general and special jurisdiction over civil, criminal, juvenile, or family law matters.

7.2

​​Practice Tip

[Insert re WL not providing division number based Judge Sharp’s response]

 

Cite all reported Business Court cases to the Business Court public domain cite and to the South Western Reporter, if available. A complete citation must contain the case name; the Business Court public domain cite; the specific paragraph containing the cited material; a citation to the volume and page of the South Western Reporter; the specific page containing the cited material; and a parenthetical including the division number and year:

 

Lone Star NGL Prod. Services LLC v. EagleClaw Midstream Ventures, LLC, 2024 Tex. Bus. 8, ¶ ¶ 2, 705 S.W.3d 243, 246 (11th Div. 2024).

 

Citations to unreported Business Court cases and cases not yet appearing in the South Western Reporter advance sheets should follow this form:

 

Sebastian v. Durant, 2025 Tex. Bus. 4, ¶ 10, 2025 WL 394634, at *2 (11th Div. 2025).

 

Sebastian v. Durant, 2025 Tex. Bus. 4, ¶ 10, 2025 TXBC LEXIS 4, at *3–4 (11th Div. 2025).

 

 

7.2 7.3

 

Except as provided below, abbreviate court names in accordance with The Bluebook T7:

Unpublished:

Plaintiff v. Defendant, 2024 Tex. Bus. 3, ¶ 50, 2024 WL 1234567, at *7 (1st Div. ).

Published:

Plaintiff v. Defendant, 2024 Tex. Bus. 3, ¶ 50, 100 S.W.3d 300, 302 (1st Div.).

Rule 7.3

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7.3.1

If support for the textual proposition appears in the reporter’s record in the record on appeal, use the abbreviation “R.R.”:

Smith began working on March, 7 1990, and remained there until he resigned in December 1994 (II R.R. at 16, XXIX R.R. at 12).

If the textual proposition is supported in the clerk’s record, use the abbreviation “C.R.”:

Alverson asserted several affirmative defenses (I C.R. at 9, 12–13).

When citing to a supplemental clerk’s record, use the abbreviation “Supp.”:

The court subsequently issued findings of fact regarding the special appearance (I .Supp. at 3).

Rule 10.2.1: Removing “Ann.”

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10.2.1 Codified Statutes

 

Cite material in these statutes to the subject matter codes or, if appropriate, their supplements. The citation must include the name of the subject matter code and the section number. If a statute is currently in force, cite it without indicating the date of publication:

 

Tex. Tax Code § 26.06(a)(Supp.).

Tex. Penal Code § 29.02.

 

Appendix H includes a table of code title abbreviations and examples of each.

Rule 4.1.2: Removing (mem. op.)

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4.1.2 Parenthetical Information Regarding Weight of Authority

 

* * *

 

(a) Current Civil Cases. As of January 1, 2003, the courts of appeals must publish an opinion in every civil case, and all cases have precedential value. (When citing pre-2003 opinions, consult Rule 4.1.2(c).)

 

For cases designated “per curiam,” a parenthetical so indicating (“per curiam”) may be included after the court parenthetical. For “Memorandum Opinions,” a parenthetical so indicating (“mem. op.”) may be included after the court parenthetical or, if applicable, the per curiam parenthetical:

Richardson v. Kays, No. 02-03-241-CV, 2003 WL 22457054, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Oct. 30, 2003, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op.)

In re Int’l Profit Assocs., Inc., 274 S.W.3d 696, 697 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 2008, orig. proceeding) (per curiam) (mem. op.), mand. Granted, 274 S.W.3d 672, 680 (Tex. 2009) (per curiam).

Rule 10.2 

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Rule 14.7.2

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Rule 15

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Rule 16: 

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Proposed Change:

• “The electronic version of the Texas Administrative Code requires you to know the title, part, chapter, subchapter, and section. Right now, the citation form only requires title, chapter, and section, and so there is quite a bit of guessing and clicking around (try finding your example section “Seed Sampling Procedures” using only the information provided by the citation). It’s going to make the citation clunkier, but we need both the part and subchapter information to quickly navigate to the cited section. Something like 4 Tex. Admin. Code pt. 1 ch. 9 subch. F sec. 12. On the other hand, you can eliminate the name of the agency and the subject heading of the rule. You can probably get creative to make it more streamlined, maybe

[Yes!]

Long Form: 4 Tex. Admin. Code pt. 1 ch. 9 subch. F § 12 (2013).

• With this change, eliminate requirement for rule, agency and subject heading.

Short Cite: 4 Tex. Admin. Code 1-9-F-12.

• 16.2: “I’m sure there’s work that could be done to streamline this, but could you at the very least suggest practitioners include a WL cite if one is available?” [Yes!]