What happens when you choose to go to trial, but you don’t get the result you want? You have several options, the most common of which is to file an appeal. An appeal is very different from a trial. No new evidence gets presented, and instead of arguing about facts, a good appeals lawyer will only focus on raising the legal errors that might have been made during the course of the pre-trial and trial process.
Filing an appeal takes several steps, and also has very strict time deadlines. It is critical that even if you are only thinking about an appeal, you contact Indiana appeals attorney Randall Parr to discuss your options. The process begins by filing a Notice of Appeal and paying the filing fee. From there, the attorney receives transcripts of the court hearings from the trial court, and begins to dig through the records to discover possible legal errors that the trial court may have made. In some cases, this can also include rulings made before the trial itself.
Unlike a trial, an appeal does not involve new evidence. Instead, an experienced lawyer that does appeals will look at whether the law was not followed. This can mean arguing that the law should be changed. In any event, much of the time an appeals attorney will spend working on an appeal will be reading the transcripts to understand what happened in the case, and then researching potential avenues of attack. The appeals lawyer then writes a brief, which contains the arguments that raise the legal errors that the trial court may have committed.
The majority of appeals are not successful. That’s why it is very important to choose a lawyer that handles appeals who is detail-oriented and produces quality writing. Indiana appellate attorneys Randall Parr and Riley Parr are lawyers that have experience with civil and criminal appeals, including appeals of murder.
If you are looking for an appeals attorney in Indiana to handle your appeal, contact Randall Parr or Riley Parr today. They can help you with your appeal of an adverse decision in a civil case, including divorce, child custody, and child support; DCS cases like CHINS and Termination of Parental Rights; and criminal appeals.