Texas has fifteen intermediate courts of appeals. They are the first stop for almost every appeal in the state — civil and criminal alike — before a case can reach the Supreme Court of Texas or the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Fourteen of them serve numbered geographic districts, from the First Court of Appeals in Houston to the Fourteenth (also Houston — the two share the same district). The newest, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, opened in September 2024 with statewide jurisdiction over certain appeals involving the State of Texas and matters from the new business court.
The current courts, live
Each court sits in panels of three justices, so a court listed with nine justices is typically deciding cases three at a time.
How appeals flow through them
Most appeals are a matter of right: lose in district court or county court, and you can take the case to your district's court of appeals. From there, review is discretionary — the Supreme Court of Texas picks the civil cases it wants to hear, and the Court of Criminal Appeals does the same on the criminal side (with a narrow exception: death-penalty cases skip the courts of appeals entirely and go straight to the CCA).
Sources
Texas Government Code, Chapter 22. Texas Judicial Branch judicial directory. Court rosters are read live from Referlex court records.
Last verified
August 10, 2026