In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-15-00131-CR
MELISSA JEAN POOL, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 2
McLennan County, Texas
Trial Court No. 2015-0550-CR2
Before Morriss, C.J., Moseley and Burgess, JJ.
ORDER
Melissa Jean Pool has filed a motion, through counsel, to extend the deadline for filing her
brief in this matter. The brief was due November 4, 2015.
In the motion, counsel states simply that he has been busy “due to a full case load in the
practice of trial law,” which does not provide the Court with a reasonable explanation of the need
for an extension of time. This Court interprets Rule 10.5(b)(1) of the Texas Rules of Appellate
Procedure as requiring counsel to provide specific information to justify a requested extension,
including the cause numbers of cases in which other briefs were filed; the dates they were filed;
the dates, cause numbers, and courts of matters scheduled for trial; the exact dates of trial (if
known); the expected duration of trial; etc. Broad, general statements do not provide the required
facts and are not adequate to meet the requirements of the Rule. See TEX. R. APP. P. 10.5(b)(1).
All future motions to extend time must contain case-specific information adequate to
justify the request, or they will be summarily denied.
In this instance, we grant Pool’s motion and extend the deadline for filing her brief by
twenty-one days,1 making the brief now due November 25, 2015. Additional requests for
extensions of time will not be looked on with favor.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
BY THE COURT
Date: November 10, 2015
1
For information concerning this Court’s briefing deadline extension policies, counsel is encouraged to review the
“Practice Before the Court” section of our website.
2