Opinion
NO. 03-17-00487-CV
08-17-2017
F. R. and J. R., Appellants v. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Appellee
FROM THE 274TH DISTRICT COURT OF HAYS COUNTY
NO. 13-2094 , THE HONORABLE WILLIAM R. HENRY, JUDGE PRESIDING ORDER
PER CURIAM
Appellants F. R. and J. R. filed their notice of appeal on July 17, 2017. The appellate record was complete July 28, 2017, making appellants' brief due August 17, 2017. On August 15, 2017, counsel for appellants filed a "motion to amend appellant's due date," seeking to have this Court recalculate the due date based on the date that counsel received the record. The deadline for filing appellants' brief is governed by Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 38.6(a), which provides that the deadline for filing appellants' brief in an accelerated appeal is 20 days after the later of the date the clerk's record was filed or the reporter's record was filed, not the date that counsel receives it. Appellants' motion is in essence a motion for extension of time to file appellants' brief, and accordingly, we will treat it as such a motion.
Amendments to the rules of judicial administration accelerate the final disposition of appeals from suits for termination of parental rights. See Tex. R. Jud. Admin. 6.2(a) (providing 180 days for court's final disposition). The accelerated schedule constrains this Court's leeway in granting extensions. In this instance, we will grant the motion and order counsel to file appellants' brief no later than August 29, 2017. If the brief is not filed by that date, counsel may be required to show cause why she should not be held in contempt of court.
It is ordered on August 17, 2017. Before Justices Puryear, Field, and Bourland