Appeals

All cases begin in the trial court will eventually end in the trial court, once a decision or ruling occurs. The case could be dismissed by the judge early in the litigation or a final judgment or conviction could be entered after a full trial. When the trial portion is concluded, a party unhappy with the outcome (typically the losing side, but sometimes even the winning side) may have grounds for an appeal. This simply means that the case may be able to be reviewed by a higher court, for mistakes of the law that occurred at the trial level.

An appeal typically begins with filing a notice of appeal in the trial court. The party appealing -- known as the "appellant" -- must also designate an appellate record. The appellate record consists of materials from the trial court that the appellant would like to present to the appellate court and use in appeal.

          
Federal criminal defense attorney Rick Jancha can use his intricate knowledge of the federal system to handle criminal appeals, either from current clients after the trial phase, or new clients with reason to appeal a decision in the lower court.

 

Standards of Appellate Review

Appellate courts do not retry cases or hear new evidence. Instead, appellate courts review what occurred in the trial court to see if the proper procedures were followed and the proper law was applied. Because of the limited nature of this review, the issues properly raised on appeal can be significantly different from those that are raised at trial.

The appellate court will usually defer to the trial court or jury on factual issues. However, the appellate court has the final word on what the law is. On issues of law -- for example, the interpretation of a statute or the Constitution -- the appellate court will not defer to the trial court but will instead independently decide the issue.

On an appeal after a pre-trial dismissal -- for example, after a summary judgment motion, the appellate court will usually review the materials and independently decide whether the case should have been dismissed or whether it should have been allowed to go to trial.

On an appeal from a judgment after a trial, the appellate court will reverse the judgment only if it finds the trial court committed legal errors that were prejudicial during the trial. Examples of such legal errors include the trial court giving bad jury instructions, admitting or excluding certain evidence and failing to follow proper procedures. If the appellate court finds such legal errors, the Court will then determine whether these errors were prejudicial. A legal error is considered prejudicial only if there is some reasonable chance that it was likely to have affected the result in the case. Thus, minor legal errors are usually not grounds for a reversal.

Appellate Panel and Oral Argument

Appeals are decided by an appellate panel. Usually the appellate panel in an intermediate appellate court consists of three judges chosen randomly from the pool of available appellate judges on the courts. In appeals to state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, the entire court usually hears the appeal.

Once the briefing is completed, the appellate court may hear oral arguments from the attorneys representing both sides. Not all cases have oral arguments, so it is important to retain an appellate attorney who is skilled in both oral and written argument. The time between the close of briefing and oral argument varies tremendously between different courts. By the time of oral argument, the judges on most appellate courts will have read the briefs and thoroughly considered the issues.

In the federal courts and some state courts, the court may chose to decide a case without the necessity of oral argument. At the close of oral argument the case is submitted to the appellate court for a decision.

Decision

The appellate panel will usually issue a written opinion explaining why it reached the decision that it did. If the appellate court deems it appropriate, the written opinion will be published in the official reports and will be binding authority for litigants in the future.

Review by a Higher Court

A party who is dissatisfied with the results on appeal can petition a higher appellate court to review the case. In most states, this would be the state supreme court. In the federal system, it is the U.S. Supreme Court. (If a federal issue is involved, the U.S. Supreme Court can take cases from the state appellate courts.)

With a few exceptions (like death penalty appeals), the state supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court are not required to take any particular case; they choose what cases they will decide. Consequently, the petition asking the higher court to take review must be carefully drafted, as the vast majority of cases seeking review from a state Supreme Court are denied.