What Is Appellate Law?
When someone mentions “appellate law,” you may only have a vague understanding of what they mean. What precisely is appellate law, and when does it become relevant to your Veteran-owned business?
Appellate law concerns the act of appealing a lower court’s decision to a higher court. The lower court could be a trial court or an administrative government agency. Regardless, the higher court is responsible for reviewing the actions of the lower court, the evidence presented, and all other relevant elements of the case. Your legal representation will generally have a chance to submit an appellate brief, which makes a legal argument for why the lower court’s decision should (or should not) be overturned.
In many cases, appellate proceedings are not new trials. The appellate court will often exclusively review the existing evidence, testimony, and proceedings as well as each side’s written legal arguments.
Depending on the type of appeal, the appellate court may only be able to overturn the lower court’s decision if a serious legal error made was made or if some other problem appears to invalidate the ruling. In these instances, the appellate court may send the case back to the lower court with specific instructions for how to proceed. In other situations, the appellate court may be able to issue its own ruling – which supersedes that of the lower court – based on the facts of the case.
From a practical standpoint, you should expect both sides in a legal dispute to fully explore and potentially exercise their appellate options. In other words, if your business prevails in a legal conflict, you must be ready to fight a possible appeal and move to preserve the lower court’s ruling. If your business receives an unfavorable decision at the end of a trial or administrative proceeding, you will need to file an appeal if you wish to overturn it. Our team at The Veterans Advocacy Law Group can help you understand how appeals can be used to benefit and protect the interests of your business.
Our firm routinely assists Veteran-owned businesses with appeals at the state and federal levels. We have written thousands of trial and appellate briefs, giving us the practical knowledge required to strategically approach many types of cases.
We are prepared to assist you with appeals involving many areas of the law, including (but not limited to):
- Administrative law
- Commercial civil litigation
- Constitutional law
- Employment law
- Intellectual property law
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