Anyone facing litigation should prepare for big impending changes. While we don’t often think of elections as forces for change in our court systems and legal processes, the reality is that the significant election of new Democratic judges in Harris County and other Texas counties this year is going to change litigation appeals.

Millet Harrison, who has waited more than seven months to be released from Rusk State Hospital, remains in legal limbo following an appeals court ruling Thursday that Harris County can’t be forced to take him as an outpatient.