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Higher Court Attorneys in Destin

Unhappy with a verdict or ruling from a Florida trial court? Perhaps you are satisfied with the decision, but another party has filed an appeal? Whether the decision was made by a judge or a jury, any party to a case can appeal to a higher court. This applies to final judgments of divorce, personal injury judgments, criminal convictions, and any other trial court decision. Hiring an appellate attorney is not a decision to take lightly, as an appeal requires a great deal of research, strategy, and case development. A significant amount of time will be invested to present your case to the appellate court for review. There is much at stake. Don’t let just any attorney create a case for you. Choose the very best with Matthew and Jones, LLP.

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Appellate Law Deals With:

  • Divorce Judgement
  • Personal Injury
  • Criminal Convictions
  • Any other court decision
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What is Appellate Law?

You may be aware that appellate law is an area that involves appealing a court case that has already been determined, but understanding appellate law can be complicated. You might be asking yourself, “What exactly is appellate law?” Given that the terms’ appellate law’ and ‘appellate litigation’ are used across so many law fields, it is sometimes confusing to understand what lawyers mean when discussing appellate law and appeals.

Appellate law involves appealing the ruling of a lower court to a higher court for review. Sometimes the lower court is a trial court, and sometimes it is an administrative government agency. Appellate law is a distinct practice in which an attorney appeals the lower court’s decision. Depending upon the type of case, the appeals court may try the case entirely anew, or the appeals court may be authorized to hear only the evidence originally presented to the lower court.

Also, depending upon the type of appeal, the appeals court may be able to decide based on the facts of the case, or it may be limited to deciding whether the lower court abused its discretion or made a severe error in reaching its conclusion. In many types of appeals, the appeals court will send a case back to the lower court with its instructions. After an appeal based on an administrative decision, such as a disability benefits appeal, the appeals process may end.

An appeal is not an opportunity to retry your case before a new judge. Appellate courts review trial courts’ decisions with a specific legal standard and do not admit new evidence. Rather, the appellate court will review the trial court’s decision based upon the evidence presented at trial to determine if the decision was legally and factually supported. Appellate courts defer a great deal of discretion to trial courts concerning factual determinations but review legal standards with no deference to the trial courts. When deciding whether to file an appeal and when identifying arguments to present to the appellate court, you will need an attorney who has experience analyzing appellate issues and who can guide you through the appellate process.

How Much Time Do You Have To File An Appeal In Florida?

An appeal is initiated by the filing of a notice of appeal in the trial court. If you need to file an appeal, one of the most important things to know is how much time you have to file.

Typically, the deadline for filing a notice of appeal is 30 days from the date of the final judgment. At this point, the appellate attorney will begin compiling and designating an appellate record. The appellate record must be sufficient to identify the evidence offered at trial and the trial court’s decisions.

Once the appellate record is complete, attorneys prepare legal briefs and submit them to the appellate court for consideration. The vast majority of appeals are resolved completely through the briefs. Only a minority of cases involve oral argument before the appellate court. Therefore, effective research and writing is often the determining factor of the outcome of the appeal.

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What Can a Higher Court Do?

When your appeal is accepted, your case will be passed to the next higher court for review. Though most cases won’t go this high, appeals can technically climb the judicial system until it reaches the United States Supreme Court for a final decision. However, due to resource constraints and a lack of necessity, this is highly unlikely.

When reviewing a case, an appellate court can settle the appeal by:

  • Reversing a decision: An appellate court will reverse incorrect decisions made by lower courts, effectively annulling part or all of the preexisting order.
  • Dismissing a case: When there seems to be no fixing the legal errors in a case, an appellate court may rule to drop a case entirely, erasing it and any of the legal consequences it had caused so far.
  • Requiring a retrial: Higher courts can send appealed cases back to lower courts. During a retrial, the case has to be handled as if it were a brand new case.

If you are the appellant, the goal is to persuade the appellate court that the trial court misapplied the law or that the trial court could not have reached the conclusion it reached without abusing its discretion to interpret the facts. If you are an appellee and seeking to support the ruling in the trial court, the process is the same, but the goal is to demonstrate that the law and the facts supported the trial court’s conclusions.

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