Full Opinion

Opinion issued October 16, 2026 In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-26-00479-CV ——————————— IN THE INTEREST OF W.S., A CHILD On Appeal from the 313th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 2025-00549J CONCURRING OPINION The Court’s opinion explains our reasoning very well, so I have nothing to add about the merits of the decision. My only additional comment relates to one aspect of appeals from orders that terminate parental rights. Appeals about the termination of parental rights have special features. First, they move fast because we need to rule within 180 days of the notice of appeal. See TEX. R. JUD. ADMIN. 6.2(a). The fast track presents a challenge because the clock starts running before we have a record, let alone briefs to explain what each side thinks the judge got right or wrong, and why. This case fits the normal pattern. We received the notice of appeal in May, the record in June, one brief in July, and the other brief in August, meaning that our 180-day period had shrunk by half before we had heard from both sides. Second, most of these appeals ask us to evaluate sufficiency of the evidence. This case again illustrates the point, because it presents sufficiency attacks on three findings (two about statutory predicates and one about best interest of the child). Those sufficiency complaints require us to review all the evidence before we can rule on which side has the better of the arguments. With these realities, and with the stakes so high, let me add to the dialogue between the courts and the appellate bar by making a suggestion about how to present sufficiency arguments in a way that helps readers the most: distill the facts and present them topically or thematically rather than on a witness-by-witness basis. This is only a suggestion and not a demand, because advocates always know things that the courts cannot know; but as coworkers in the same vineyard, we owe each other good-faith efforts to improve our communication process. What assists me the most is to see the evidence laid out topically, based on the element or elements that the appellant maintains was proven inadequately. 2 Listing witnesses in order and summarizing each one’s testimony does not help me, and others have said that it does not help them, either. Judge Easterbrook has written about his experience in the Solicitor General’s office, where he and his colleagues were taught to put facts “always in the form of a narration, not a witness-by-witness summary.” Frank H. Easterbrook, Friedman Lecture in Appellate Advocacy, 23 FED. CIRCUIT B.J. 1, 6 (2013). Some states forbid such witness summaries.1 Texas does not go that far, but one Texas attorney has cautioned against the practice: “In addition to identifying the relevant ‘story,’ it is important to consider how to organize the facts to tell that story. Advocates often make two mistakes in organizing the facts. The first is to fall back on a chronological ordering of facts, when a non-chronological ordering may be more persuasive. . . . A second mistake is summarizing testimony witness by 1 See IND. R. APP. P. 46(A)(6)(c) (“The statement [of facts] shall be in narrative form and shall not be a witness by witness summary of the testimony.”); R.R. v. Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affs. Med. Ctr., 251 N.E.3d 550, 2024 WL 5003062, at *1 n.1 (Ind. Ct. App. 2024) (departure from the rule “impeded our review of this matter”); N.J. CT. R. 2:6-2(a)(5) (“The statement [of facts] shall be in the form of a narrative chronological summary incorporating all pertinent evidence and shall not be a summary of all of the evidence adduced at trial, witness by witness.”); Metoui v. City of Jersey City, No. A-3524-17T3, 2019 WL 2870305, at *1 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. July 3, 2019) (per curiam) (quoting the rule); Repple v. E. Tex. Motor Freight Lines, 289 S.W.2d 109, 111 (Mo. 1956) (“Appellant’s ‘statement of the facts,’ so far as material, merely purports to set forth separately a resume of the testimony of named witnesses. A statement of the facts may be followed, if desired, by a statement of the testimony of each witness relevant to the points presented; but merely narrating the testimony of each witness without first making a fair and concise statement of the facts is not a compliance with Rule 1.08.”). 3 witness.” Robert Dubose, Advanced Brief Writing Strategies, 35 APP. ADVOC. 227, 230–31 (2026). There may be occasions when a witness-by-witness summary will have a role, because the advocate deems an overview vital to the argument. On those occasions, a short table could work as a supplement to the statement of facts. E.g.: Witness Key takeaways 1. Caseworker *** 2. Grandmother *** 3. Next door neighbor *** 4. Child’s caregiver *** 5. Mother *** But in general, a witness-by-witness summary slows me down. Given the time pressures that confront all of us who deal with these appeals, I appreciate the help that we receive from the appellate bar. Lawyers face deadlines that are even shorter than the ones the appellate courts face, so these comments should not be mistaken as unsympathetic red ink. To the contrary, they come in a positive spirit, to offer feedback from one reader in an ongoing conversation, to better the lives of the lawyers who appear in our appellate courts, and to improve the administration of justice for a society that depends on us to get things right. 4 David Gunn Justice Panel consists of Justices Rivas-Molloy, Guerra, and Gunn. Justice Gunn, concurring. 5