Appellate Law

Many litigating lawyers go their entire careers without arguing a single case before any of the Courts of Appeals. Not so with Mr. Leonard. He successfully argued his first case before the Texas Court of Appeals for the First District [Houston] in 1991, his first year out of law school. That case, Prince v. First City—Texas, NA, 853 S.W.2d 691 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1993, no writ), was a case involving the interpretation of a Federal Banking statute regarding the statute of limitations pertaining to collecting a debt and whether that Federal statute was applicable or the Texas statute should be used. As one might expect, the Bank was pushing for the Federal statute of limitations, which was six (6) years as opposed to the Texas statute, which was four (4) years. Both sides filed motions for summary judgment and the Trial court granted the Bank’s motion and denied Mr. Prince’s motion. The Court of Appeals reversed the Trial court and rendered judgment in favor of Mr. Prince.

It was fourteen (14) years later before Mr. Leonard was involved with another appeal. In this case he acted in an advisory position to the trial lawyer. This case was Giselle Rutledge v. James G. Leonard and The Leonard Law Firm, PLLC, Docket No. 10-07-00376-CV (Tex. App.—Waco 2009, no writ). In this case, Mr. Leonard assisted counsel for the appellees. The underlying case involved a lawsuit for the collection of unpaid legal fees. The Trial court found in favor of James Leonard and the Leonard Law Firm and the defendant appealed. The Court of Appeals sustained the Trial court’s ruling.

Since that time, Mr. Leonard has been involved in numerous other appeals, in most of these appeals he has successfully represented the Appellants, however, he has also represented Appellees as well.

Below is a current list of appellate cases which have been successfully completed by Mr. Leonard. All of them are available in pdf format for your review.

1. Prince v. First City—Texas, NA, 853 S.W.2d 691 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1993, no writ)

2. Giselle Rutledge v. James G. Leonard and The Leonard Law Firm, PLLC, Docket No. 10-07-00376-CV (Tex. App.–Waco 2009, no writ)

3. Mattox v. Grimes County, et al, 305 S.W.3d 375 (Tex. App.–Houston [14 Dist.] 2010);

4. Mattox v. Jackson, Docket No. 01-10-00736-CV (Tex. App.–Houston [1 Dist.] 2011);

5. Intex Livingspace, LTD. v. Roset, Docket No.14-10-00855-CV (Tex. App.–Houston [14 Dist.] 2011)

Below is a current list of pending appellate cases in which Mr. Leonard is involved as either Appellate counsel or Appellee’s counsel.

6. Mattox v. Grimes County, et al, 14-11-00383-CV (Tex. App.–Houston [14 Dist.]) 7. Diane Daole Vo v. Ly Thi Nguyen, 01-11-00294-CV (Tex. App.–Houston [1 Dist.])