The Texas Supreme Court issued one opinion today on an appellate procedural question:
In a parental rights-termination case, In the Interest of J.M. and Z.M., before a termination order was signed, the mother’s trial counsel filed a combined “Motion for New Trial or, in the Alternative, Notice of Appeal.” He also filed a motion to withdraw as counsel, citing the mother’s desire to appeal, and noting that he was not an appellate lawyer. Several weeks later, the trial court signed the termination order, granted the motion to withdraw, and appointed appellate counsel. The intermediate appellate court dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The Texas Supreme Court reversed and remanded, finding that that the primary determinative factor for whether appellate jurisdiction was conferred is not the form or substance of the pleading, but whether the filing is a bona fide attempt to invoke appellate jurisdiction. Nothing in appellate-procedural rules or Texas jurisprudence prevents a party from combining a notice of appeal with a new-trial motion or filing both simultaneously. The Supreme Court concluded that the combined filing conferred appellate jurisdiction.
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