Central Florida Appeals Attorney

Florida Appeals Lawyer

The lawyers at Chad Barr Law are experienced at fighting for clients who lost their cases at the trial level. In general, when defendants in criminal cases are convicted and sentenced in Superior Court, they may appeal their conviction and sentence to the Florida Court of Appeals. Even if the Court of Appeals rejects an appeal, a defendant may seek relief from the Florida Supreme Court or—if the case involves certain issues—the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals or the United States Supreme Court.

Whether you are a plaintiff who has brought a civil lawsuit against a person or company for damages as a result of intentional or negligent conduct, or whether you are a defendant who has defended oneself against such a suit, the lawyers at Chad Barr Law can help you determine whether any errors were made in trial court that led to the adverse result in your case.

Chad Barr Law has been retained by parties to both civil and criminal actions who believed the judgment of the trial court was in error. When a party seeks assistance on appeal, the first thing our team of experienced appellate attorneys does is analyze the proceedings in trial court to determine whether any errors of law or procedure were made. Lawyers, prosecutors, judges and juries are responsible for adhering to certain rules both inside and outside of the courtroom. If these rules were not followed, the ruling against a party may have been obtained in error. We are experienced at identifying these errors and at fighting on clients’ behalf to correct them on appeal.

Handling an appeal is a very complex process, but the lawyers at Chad Barr Law are well-versed in the rules and procedures involved and are eager to assist those who believe justice was not served in a court of law.

Chad Barr Law is prepared to assist you when its time for an appeal. We handle civil appeals, family appeals, criminal appeals and the filing of second tier petitions for review. We are also available to provide trial support to trial attorneys.

Federal and Florida Appeals Process

Initiating an Appeal

An appeal is initiated by one side filing a notice of appeal. The majority of the time an appeal is initiated when a final order is entered. There are time however where it is appropriate to initiate an appeal before a case is concluded.

Generally, the time limit for initiating an appeal starts to run when the lower tribunal “renders” the final judgment (“rendition”). The appellant has 30 days from that date of rendition to file a notice of appeal. This is the most important judicial deadline. If the notice of appeal is not timely filed, the appellate court does not have the power, or jurisdiction, to hear the appeal, and the appeal will be dismissed.

The Record on Appeal

Your case will be decided by the appellate court based on the Record. The Record is a collection of the testimony, the lower tribunal’s rulings and most of the documents that were presented to the lower tribunal. The Record gives the appellate court a history of what happened in the lower tribunal and is limited to what was actually before the lower tribunal. You cannot add new documents or evidence to the Record once your case is on appeal.

There are many considerations that need to be made when putting together the Record. Contact us today for a free evaluation of your appeal.

Appellate Briefs

The most difficult and tedious part of any appeal is arguing your case in paper form; this is referred to a brief. In most cases, the party initialing the appeal (Appellant) is required to file its Initial Brief within 70 days of filing the Notice of Appeal. The party defending the appeal (Appellee) then has 20 days to file an Answer Brief. Then the Appellant has 20 days to file a Reply Brief.

There are many rules and requirements for appellate briefs. It is not uncommon for an appellate court to issue sanctions or reprimands for not complying with the rules regarding appellate briefs. Contact us today for a free evaluation of your appeal.

Oral Argument

Oral argument is a chance for the parties to appear before an appellate panel to respectfully argue their case on appeal. It is also an opportunity the judges on the panel to ask questions that they may have the appeal. Whether or not there will be oral argument in an appeal is solely at the discretion of the appellate panel. An appeal is not decided by the appellate panel immediately following oral argument.

Chad Barr Law has handled oral arguments all across the state of Florida as well as in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Contact us today for a free evaluation of your appeal.

Opinion and Order

At some point following the filing of all the required briefs, and after oral argument if allowed, the appellate panel will issue an order in the case. There are certain motions that the losing can file regarding the order.

There are very important questions to consider before filing any permissible motion after an order is entered. Contact us today for a free evaluation of your appeal.

Attorney’s Fees and Costs

A common question asked in appellate consultations is whether the winning party can recover their attorney’s fees if they win. The general rule is no. In Florida each party is responsible for their own attorney’s fee unless there is a statute or contract provision that allows for attorney’s fees to be recovered by the prevailing party. You are however entitled to recover costs you have paid if you prevail. The most typical costs are the filing fee for the appeal, and the copy costs paid to the clerk of the lower tribunal for transmitting the Record on appeal to to appellate court.

The price of retaining our office to handle an appeal is determined on a case by case basis. There are several ways we charge for handling an appeal. If there is a statutory or contractual right to attorney’s fees, we may take your case on a contingent basis meaning that if we do not win then you do not owe our firm any fees and if we win then the losing party will pay our fees for you (you are still required to pay costs if we do not prevail). In other instances, we make take your case based on a percentage of a judgment that you may obtain or have already obtained (typically 5% plus costs). Again in that instance you would not owe our firm any fees if we do not prevail (you are still required to pay costs if we do not prevail). We may take your case for a flat fee; meaning that you pay one price for us to handle your appeal no matter how work is involved. Or we may take your case based on an hourly rate.

In cases where we charge a flat fee or an hourly rate, we do offer payment plans for your convenience. Feel free to contact us today for a free evaluation of your appeal.

Appellate Law Trial Support

We also offer trial support to trial attorneys. We can assist with pretrial preparations and motions practice, provide assistance at at trial, and assist with post-trial matters.