General dockets are the initial dockets, dating 1892-1928 and 1940-1959, employed in the appellate process and are analogous to the application dockets of the Supreme Court. Information provided includes cause number, attorneys, parties, county, and filing date. A few later dockets include type of appeal, original cause number from the district, the district judge presiding, presence or absence of statement of facts (s.f. or n.s.f.), and orders of the civil appeals court.

Trial dockets, dating 1892-1948, differ little in content from the general dockets previously described. The major difference is the inclusion of present orders of the court, entered as they were handed down. The earliest volume, 1892-1893, also includes orders of the Supreme Court. A few later dockets provide references to the South Western Reporter.

Most motions, 1892-1893 and 1904-1914, dating are included in the case files, which are arranged by cause number. Those which are separated post-date the entries in the motion docket. Other information includes attorneys, parties, purpose of motion, filing date, and orders of the court.

During the time period covered by these records, the Texas 3rd Court of Civil Appeals heard only civil appeals from county and district courts in the 3rd Supreme Judicial District. These case files of the Texas 3rd Court of Civil Appeals date from 1891 to 1962. Any or all of the following information may be contained within a case file: appellant's brief and arguments, appellee's brief and arguments, statement of facts, transcripts of proceedings from the lower court, motions, subpoenas, judgements, exhibits, and bills of costs.

Another access point is date. With an exact date, general or trial dockets may be consulted. Furthermore, direct (by appellant) and reverse (by appellee) indexes were prepared for early cases (1892-1922.)

During the time period covered by these records, the Texas 3rd Court of Civil Appeals heard only civil appeals from county and district courts in the 3rd Supreme Judicial District. These records consist of a small selection of case files (95 out of a total of approximately 1,950 cases) heard before the 3rd Court of Civil Appeals in Austin between 1960 and 1980. The staff of the 3rd Court of Appeals made this selection of cases (about 5 percent of the total) based upon what they believed to be historic, legal, and/or other significance.

Among the topics of this appeals litigation are the following: child custody (including visitation rights, parental kidnapping, and child neglect or abuse), residential restrictions, disputes over insurance, taxation cases, the feasibility of a federal water impoundment project, inheritance disputes and probate, dismissal of a teacher, denial of legal counsel to a juvenile, trespass to try title, changing a street name to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, equalization of school district funds, use of a student newspaper to influence elections, denial (based on immorality) of a license to practice law, compliance of a religious institution with the Child Care Licensing Act (the Lester Roloff case), denial of tuition-free public education to illegal aliens, prevention of a candidate's name from being placed on a ballot, an injunction against a pay raise for county officials, etc.

Case files contain the standard legal documents filed with a court case, including pleadings, briefs, statements of facts (transcripts), correspondence, bills of costs, etc.

The Texas 3rd Court of Appeals has intermediate appellate jurisdiction of both civil and criminal cases appealed from lower courts in twenty-four counties of central Texas; in civil cases where judgment rendered exceeds $100, exclusive of costs, and other civil proceedings as provided by law; and (since 1981) in criminal cases except in post-conviction writs of habeas corpus and where the death penalty has been imposed. Types of records include briefs of appellants and appellees, motions, cover correspondence, statements of facts, and transcripts of proceedings from lower courts. These records comprise 120 case files from 1981 to 1998 of the Court of Appeals, Third District. The 120 cases were selected by the clerk of the court, with concurrence of the State Archivist, as meeting criteria for archival retention due to the permanent legal and historical information they contain. Most of the cases concern real estate appraisal or title to real estate, water rights, mineral rights, probate, municipal utility districts, termination of parental rights, public officials, child custody and child abuse; or they were selected because they involved historic, extensive, and/or unique research.

These volumes record bills of cost for cases heard by the court. Records date from 1896 thru 1977. Information includes any or all of the following: case number; parties and county; date of issue; mandate (to whom the bill was sent); execution (when issued: alias, pluries, [namely, second or additional executions after the first proved ineffectual] reversed); itemized bill of costs; remarks (principals, sureties, and disposition of the bill). After 1904, the following information is recorded: date, cause number, style, and cash receipts (state, lower court, refund total).

These appropriation ledgers, dating 1892 to 1977, record disbursements of the court for salaries, stationery and record books, postage, law books, furniture, and other contingent expenses.