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Appeals Process

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Appeals Process
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December 23, 2012

Appeals Process
First I will talk about an appeal, the appeal process is the process in which an appellate wants to review and possibly make a reversal of a lower court decision. An appeal may be filed by either side of the case and if it is granted, the appellate court is the next step.
Some cases automatically get an appeal. Those cases would be the death penalty or life in prison.
There are three different types of appeals. There is the direct appeal, this is also known as the appeal of right, this appeal happens when the penalty for errors made at the trial were so big that the appellate court is mandated to do a review of the case.
The discretionary appeal is filed when there is legal ground to show specific errors have been made in a case where the laws were not applied to the case properly. Then we have the Interlocutory appeals which are filed when a judge’s decision hinders the progress of a case being tried and waiting until the end of the trial would hurt the case.
The timeline of an appeal is extremely important. If an appeal is not filed promptly the court can deny the appeal.
The first step in the appeal process is to file a formal notice of appeal with the court. This is when the appellate is able to request trial transcripts. Attorney’s from both sides fill a brief, which outlines all facts, arguments and case law that relate to any mistakes that were made in the first trial. A panel of three judges, sometimes more will review the briefs. The judges then give a written decision with explanation of the decision.
Second step is the respondent is brought before the appellate court and files a response brief or answer brief.
Then the appellate contacts the respondent by filing a final brief called “Reply Brief”. This brief cannot exceed fourteen thousand words explaining his or her position. The

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