The Second District Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction over appeals arising from district and county courts in 12 counties: Archer, Clay, Cooke, Denton, Hood, Jack, Montague, Parker, Tarrant, Wichita, Wise and Young. See Tex. Gov't. Code Ann. § 22.201 (Vernon 1988). These cases will include all types of civil appeals and all types of criminal appeals, except where the death penalty has been imposed. Death penalty cases are appealed directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. The Court also has jurisdiction over original proceedings from those same counties, such as Writs of Mandamus, Injunction, Prohibition and Habeas Corpus.

Originally, the Court was one of a handful of appellate courts created by the Texas Legislature in 1891 to help handle the increasing case load of the court system. Texas voters had to approve a change in the state constitution to allow the creation of three intermediate appellate courts: Galveston, Fort Worth and Austin. See Tex. Const. art. V § 6 (amended 1978, 1980, 1985. Original text found in Resolutions, 22nd Leg., S.J.R. No. 16, 1891.). The Galveston Court was numbered as "1", Fort Worth as "2" and Austin as "3." At that time, the three judges of the Fort Worth Court heard civil appeals from 118 counties, covering approximately the northern two-thirds of the state, from the Sabine river and the Louisiana border west to the New Mexico line. Over the years as the state's population has grown, more appellate courts were created and the court's physical area of jurisdiction changed dramatically. Today, there are fourteen Courts of Appeals. Since 1981 these intermediate appellate courts have handled criminal appeals as well as civil appeals. See Tex. Const. art. V § 6 (amended 1985).

The Court was initially housed on the second floor of the Powell Building on Main Street between 1^st and 2^nd Streets in Fort Worth. The detailed description of the furnishings from a period newspaper article includes the facts that the floors were covered with cocoa matting, and each room was provided with a fireplace, electric lights and steam heat. The judges' chambers included "cabinet desks, easy chairs upholstered in leather, folding beds, ordinary chairs, desk chairs, washstands, etc." The Fort Worth Gazette, October 3, 1892, p. 8. The original members of the Court were: Chief Justice B.D. Tarlton, Associate Justice H. O. Head, and Associate Justice J. W. Stephens. W. L. Huff was the Clerk of the Court and B. W. McDonald was the official stenographer. The Fort Worth Gazette October 4, 1892, p. 2. When the present Tarrant County Courthouse was completed in 1895, the Court was the first tenant to move in on July 1, 1895. See Tarrant County Commissioners' Court Minute Book 11, p. 11.