State of Texas v. David Kent Smith

Opinion

In The

Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-12-00174-CR

STATE OF TEXAS, Appellant V.

DAVID KENT SMITH, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Court at Law Fannin County, Texas

Trial Court No. 40539

Before Morriss, C.J., Carter and Moseley, JJ.

ORDER

Susan E. Carter, counsel for David Kent Smith, has filed a motion to extend time to file

the appellee’s brief. The brief was due December 19, 2012.

In her motion, counsel does not provide the Court with a reasonable explanation of the need for an extension of time, stating only that “counsel has been involved in complicated family law cases that have involved extensive discovery and preparations.” This Court interprets Rule 10.5(b)(2) as requiring counsel to provide the Court with specific information to justify the requested extension, including the cause numbers of other briefs filed, the dates they were filed, the dates of trials, how long those trials are expected to last, etc. Generic 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)(2).

All future motions to extend time must contain case-specific information adequate to justify the request, or they will be denied.

In this instance, we grant the motion for an extension, for a period of ten days, making the brief now due December 29, 2012. Further requests for extensions will not be looked upon with favor.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

BY THE COURT

Date: January 3, 2013