by Derek D. Bauman
A short post today, my friends, as I am currently devoting most of my time to figuring out who invented eggnog and, more importantly, why.
In truth, I decided to delay my planned topic so that I can assist in spreading the word about the new way you can now review the appellate record for cases you are assigned in certain courts. It’s known as the Attorney Records Portal. For select courts (currently the Texas Supreme Court, the two Houston courts, Dallas, and Beaumont), if you are associated with an appellate case, you can view the record online. Since I work for a court, I am naturally not the attorney of record for any case. As a result, I haven’t had the chance to try this out myself. But it sounds like an incredibly helpful tool, so I thought I would share what I have learned.
First the link: https://www.attorneyportal.txcourts.gov/
Next, you need to set up an account. Click on the link on the left side of the page that says “Register.” Put in the required personal information. You will also have to select which courts you practice in. If you practice in more than one, you can select more than one. Personally, I can’t figure out a reason why you wouldn’t go ahead and select all of them from the start. But you will be able to add to the list at any time.
To select all courts, click on the first option, then hold down the shift key, and then click on the last option. All of them should be highlighted now.
To select some but not all of the courts, hold down the control key and click on each court you want to select.
Once you are done, click on the Save button. You now have one hour to verify your account. You will get an email asking you to verify that you created the account. It will include a link for activating the account. That link will take you to a log on screen. Once you have logged on, your account is activated.
From there, you can view all cases you are associated with by clicking on the “My Cases” link of the left side of the page. You can move between courts by changing the selected court in the drop down list.
If you do not see any cases, this means you are not listed as an attorney of record with the court. To change that, you will need to contact the relevant court.
That is as far as I can guide you, my friends, since I cannot be the attorney of record for any case. But I wish you luck. I expect you will find it a useful tool as you review the record and prepare your factual citations. If not, perhaps drinking some eggnog will take your mind off of your woes. It always works for me. Every time I drink eggnog, I become solely focused on trying to figure out who thought it was a good idea for a drink.