In the present study a family of plate models available for the analysis of laminated structures is compared under transverse loading for the point-wise data like maximum transverse deflection and local state of stress. Here, the plate models compared are Higher-order-Shear-Deformable (HSDI) model, Hierarchic model and Layerwise model. It is seen that all the models predict the deflections accurately. The local state of stress is computed using direct finite element data and equilibrium approach of post processing as well It is seen for HSDT and hierarchic models that the state of stress computed using direct finite element data is significantly different from exact one, whereas for the layerwise model it is accurately predicted. With equilibrium approach of post processing the local state of stress is accurately predicted by all the models. Further, the effect of the model on first-ply failure load obtained using the equilibrium approach of transverse stress extraction and Tsai-Wu failure criterion is studied. The effect of discretization error control by a one shot adaptive approach has been studied for the first-ply failure loads. It is seen that the control of discretization error together with equilibrium approach of post processing leads to significant reduction in the computed values of failure load. Copyright © 2005 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.