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A party can appeal a decision of the judge or jury to a higher court. In this section, you will learn:
- the elements of an appeal,
- common terms related to an appeal,
- strategies at the appeal stage.
Appeal
An Appeal seeks review of a trial court ruling in a higher court.
A party petitions an appellate court by preserving and demonstrating a specific error made by the trial court, based on existing constitutional, statutory and/or case law.
Definitions
- Petitioner / Appellant — the party asking an appellate court to review and overturn a decision of the trial court
- Respondent / Appellee — the party defending a decision of the trial court in the appellate court
- Initial brief — a document filed in an appellate assigning error to a trial court’s decision
- Response brief — a document filed in an appellate court asking that a trial court’s decision be left undisturbed
- Reply brief — a document filed by a petitioner/appellant rebutting the respondent’s arguments
More Definitions
- Motion for extension of time — a request to a court asking for more time to file a pleading or respond to a request
- Motion for costs — a request to a court for an order that a losing party pay attorney’s fees and costs to the winning party
- Assignment of error — a description of a wrongful decision of a trial court, along with the basis on which the appellate court should overturn it
- Standard of review — the basis on which an appellate court reviews a trial court’s decision
- Preservation of error — a requirement that a trial court have the opportunity to correct its error before an appellate court will
Success at the Appeal Stage
An Appeal is successful if a trial court decision is reversed.
Appellant’s Strategy
Appellant’s strategy at the Appeal stage is to ensure:
- appellate court jurisdiction
- proper preservation and assignment of error
- adequate statutory and case law to support assignment of error
- brief(s) in compliance with formatting and style requirements, and other rules
An appellant should successfully insure all of these factors.
Appellee’s Strategy
Appellee’s strategy at the Appeal stage is to challenge:
- appellate court jurisdiction
- preservation and assignment of error
- statutory and case law supporting assignment of error
- compliance with formatting and style requirements, and other rules
An appellee should successfully challenge any of these factors.
Your Strategy
Take a moment to think about what YOUR strategy should be at the Appeal stage.
- Does the appellate court have jurisdiction to review the case?
- Have the assigned errors been preserved?
- Does statutory and case law support or undermine the appeal?
- Are the briefs in compliance with formatting and style requirements, or other rules?
You should answer these questions no matter whether you’re an appellant or appellee in an appeal.
Transcript
Hi. I\’m Portia, and this is lesson six, the final lesson of civil litigation one zero one.
In this lesson, we\’ll discuss the civil appeals process, look at strategies at the appeal stage, and study some important definitions.
At the end, we\’ll do a review of course one.
A judge at this point has rendered a decision.
That could be the end of the case unless the losing party appeals the judgment. An appeal seeks review of a trial court ruling in a higher court.
The party that lost in the lower court becomes the appellant, sometimes called petitioner, and the party that won is the appellee or respondent.
The appellant petitions the appellate court by preserving specific errors based on constitutional, statutory, and or case law that were made by the trial court.
The listing of those errors in the appellant\’s brief is called assignment of error.
The error must be one that the judge in the lower court had an opportunity to review and correct.
Errors that were pointed out in the lower court are saved for appeal.
Others are deemed abandoned.
An appeals court uses particular standards to review the case. For example, a de novo is a fresh review of the case evidence and law.
A clearly erroneous standard requires that the court determines if the trial court made a mistake given the evidence.
An abuse of discretion standard determines whether the lower court acted arbitrarily.
Appeals courts are reluctant to overturn a lower court\’s ruling because the trial court heard testimony and was in a better position to see witnesses and evaluate truthfulness.
So an appellant must overcome an appeals court\’s presumption that the trial court got it right.
To begin the appeals process, the appellant files a notice of appeal in the court where the trial was held and pays a fee.
The fee can be waived for indigency by filing an exemption.
A record or exhibits chosen by the appellant is sent up and briefs are filed by all parties.
Finally, a judge or panel of judges renders a decision.
Four main documents are important to an appeal.
The notice of appeal is the first followed by the appellant\’s brief, the appellees brief, or response brief, and the reply to the appellee\’s response brief.
For the appellant, an appeal is successful if a trial court decision is reversed.
For the appeal, an appeal is successful if the decision is affirmed.
The appellant strategy on appeal is to ensure appellate court jurisdiction, proper preservation and assignment of error, adequate statutory and case law to support assignment of error, and timely briefs that are in compliance with formatting and style requirements and other rules.
An appellant should successfully ensure all of these factors.
The appellees strategy on appeal is to challenge appellate court jurisdiction, preservation and assignment of error, statutory and case law supporting assignment of error, timeliness of briefs and their compliance with formatting, style requirements, and other rules.
An appallee should successfully challenge at least one of these factors.
Now look at your own case. What might your strategy be at the appellate stage?
Give it some thought.
Does the appellate court have jurisdiction to review the case?
Have the assigned errors been preserved?
Does statutory and case law support or undermine the appeal?
Are the briefs timely and in compliance with formatting and style requirements or other rules now let\’s take a look at some important definitions from this lesson Let\’s take a minute now to review what we\’ve covered.
The first lesson summarized the stages of litigation, including complaint, the answer, discovery, trial, and appeal.
Lesson two discussed the complaint stage of litigation and included topics like harm or injury, formal initiation of a lawsuit, the summons, and strategies at this point in litigation.
In lesson three, the answer stage, we discussed ways to respond to a complaint and strategies at the complaint stage of litigation.
Lesson four covered the discovery stage, including the types of information that can be discovered and various tools and instruments used to collect evidence.
In lesson five, we cover the trial process, including trial sequence and strategies and the use of evidence for both plaintiffs and defendants.
The appeal stage was the focus of our final lesson. We discussed major procedural steps, standards of review, appeal strategies, and documents to be filed.
Now it\’s time to take the quiz to see how well you\’ve been listening.