Texas Appellate Courts are More Likely to Reverse Plaintiff’s Judgments

The Dallas Morning News reports that a soon-to-be-released study shows Texas Appellate Courts reverse judgments for plaintiffs with alarming regularity, and at a dramatically higher rate than judgments for defendants:

“The study, conducted by two appellate lawyers at Haynes and Boone, found the Texas appellate judges have an overall reversal rate of 49 percent when they review cases that the plaintiff won in the trial court and the defendant appealed. But those same judges reversed only 25 percent of the cases in which the defendant prevailed at trial and the plaintiff appealed.

The Texas courts of appeals reversed 50 percent of the jury verdicts that favor plaintiffs in consumer fraud and general tort cases, but the judges overturned only 11 percent of the jury verdicts that favored defendants, according to the study, titled “Reasons for Reversal in the Texas Courts of Appeal.”

In personal injury cases, including allegations of wrongful death, the disparity was even larger. Appellate judges reversed 7 percent of the jury verdicts that favored defendants, but they reversed 44 percent of the jury verdicts that decided for plaintiffs”

When victims face such a hostile legal environment it is even more important that they seek experienced lawyers so the parties at fault cannot avoid paying for the damages they cause.