I’ve learned there is a new appellate blog in Texas, this one with a special focus a little to the east. The blog is Tyler Appeals written by Jeff Rambin, and its welcome page says that one “goal is to provide a summary of every case decided by the 12th Court of Appeals. So far, I’ve done that for 2008.” (I sure wish I could say the same about my Court.)

In addition, Jeff has written some in-depth articles about cases of particular interest. For example, a post from about a week ago titled “Constitutional Problem with Family Code § 263.405?” talks about a recent parental-rights termination case involving how a parent can get a free copy of the trial record to use on appeal. To do so, the parent must convince the Court not only of his or her indigence but also that the appellate points are non-frivolous. But to do the latter, the parent must often already have a copy of the record — a situation the court called a “conundrum.”

And there is, as Jeff notes in his posting, already a Texas Supreme Court connection. A similar issue is raised in the pending petitions In re F.C.G., No. 07-0882 (from the Eastland Court) and In re B.G., No. 07-0960 (an earlier decision from the Tyler Court), both of which have drawn enough interest from the Court to receive requests for full briefing on the merits. Those petitions were also mentioned very briefly in this earlier post on my blog.