Following a Texas court’s issuance of a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the new overtime rule on November 22, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a notice of appeal of the decision earlier today. If the appeal is adjudicated in the ordinary course, we can expect an appeal to take several months to one year; as of September 2014, the median time from the filing of a notice of appeal to the issuance of the court’s decision in the Fifth Circuit was 8.9 months.

It is possible that the DOL will file a motion for an expedited appeal. Under the Fifth Circuit’s rules and internal operating procedures, the Court can expedite an appeal for good cause shown. If an appeal is expedited, the clerk will issue an expedited briefing schedule unless a judge directs a specific date.