APPELLATE COURT
A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court.
An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file
an appeal with an appellate court in order to
have the decision reviewed. In the United States,
appellate courts exist at both the federal and the
state levels. On the federal level, decisions of the
U.S. district courts, where civil and criminal
matters are tried, can be appealed to the U.S.
court of appeals for the circuit covering the dis-
trict court. Eleven numbered federal judicial cir-
cuits have been established. Each circuit
comprises a number of states that are usually,
though not always, in close geographic proxim-
ity. For example, the Eighth Circuit includes
Arkansas, Iowa,Minnesota,Missouri, Nebraska,
and North and South Dakota, and the Sixth Cir-
cuit is made up of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio,
and Tennessee. Washington, D.C., has two U.S.
COURTS OF APPEALS: the District of Columbia
Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals
arising out of decisions of the Federal District
Court for the District of Columbia, and the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which
has exclusive and nationwide jurisdiction in
appeals from U.S. District Court decisions in
patent, COPYRIGHT, TRADEMARK, and other
specialized areas.
A decision of a U.S. court of appeals may be
appealed to yet another appellate court, the
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.An
appeal to the Supreme Court is made by filing a
petition for certiorari (a document requesting a
review of court records). The Supreme Court
has broad discretion in determining whether to
review decisions. The Court receives thousands
of petitions a year, but can only review about
one hundred cases in that span of time. It most
often denies certiorari and hears only cases that
raise important and unsettled constitutional
questions or in which the federal appellate
courts have reached conflicting decisions on the
same issue.
On the state level, a decision of a state trial
court—usually a district or other local court—
can be appealed to a state appellate court for
review. In most states, a case must first be
appealed to an intermediate appellate court. If it
receives an unfavorable ruling at the intermedi-
ate level, the case can then be appealed to the
highest appellate court in the state, usually the
state supreme court. Like the Supreme Court of
the United States, a state’s highest court usually
has the discretion to decide whether to review a
decision reached by the intermediate court.
Some cases decided by the highest court in a
state also can be appealed to the Supreme Court,
though again the U.S. Supreme Court will hear
only appeals of major significance.
In both state and federal matters, in general,
an appeal can be brought only after a final deci-
sion, or final judgment, in the action has been
entered. A judgment is final for the purposes of
an appeal when nothing more is to be decided in
the action, and it concludes all rights that were
subject to litigation. This rule is based in part on
the desire for judicial economy: it is more effi-
cient for all matters to be heard in one appeal
than for a case to be conducted “piecemeal” (in
several appeals) before it is finally resolved.
However, both state and federal courts will in
some instances hear an INTERLOCUTORY appeal,
which is an appeal of a matter that does not
decide the entire case but must be addressed
before the case can be decided on its merits. In
other instances, whether an interlocutory appeal
will be granted depends on the issue at hand. If
the issue concerns whether the lawsuit should go
forward at the trial level, it is more likely to be
heard, since it may avoid an unnecessary trial.
For example, an interlocutory appeal may be
permitted from an order granting or denying an
INJUNCTION even though the main issues in the
case have yet to be tried.
The proceedings in the federal and state
appellate courts are quite different from those
that take place in a trial court. At the trial level,
witnesses are called to testify and a jury is often
present to hear evidence and reach a verdict. At
the appellate level, the trial court record and
briefs prepared by both parties are reviewed, and
oral arguments may be heard; witnesses are not
called and no jury is convened. The trial court
record usually contains the pleadings that first ini-
tiated the case, a complete transcript of the court
proceedings, materials admitted into evidence, and documents indicating the final judgment.
An appellate court differs from a trial court
in another important respect: only the trial
court determines the factual issues in a case. In
its review, the appellate court does not try factual
issues. Instead, it determines only whether
there is sufficient evidence to support the findings
of the trial court and whether the trial court
correctly applied the law.
Both the appellant (the party appealing the
lower-court ruling) and the appellee (the party
against whom the appeal has been brought) file
written briefs with the appellate court. The
briefs—which recite the facts of the case, the
arguments being raised on appeal, and the
applicable law—help the court decide whether
the trial court erred in its decision.
The appellate court may also hear oral arguments
in the case. During oral argument, each
party has ten to fifteen minutes to persuade the
appellate court to rule in its favor. If numerous
issues have been raised, a party may choose to
use most of this time to cover the issues that are
most crucial to the decision to be made. The
court is free to interrupt an oral argument with
questions concerning the facts of the case or the
particular areas of law involved. The appellate
court, at its discretion, may determine that oral
argument is not necessary and may decide the
case based only on the trial court record and the
written briefs.
In making its decision, the appellate court
may affirm the trial court, meaning that it
accepts the decision of the lower court, or may
reverse it, thus agreeing with the appellant’s contention
that the trial court’s decision was erroneous.
It may also modify the decision; in this
instance, the court may accept part of the trial
court’s decision while ruling that other issues
were erroneously decided.
The appellate court usually issues its decision
in the form of a written opinion stating its
reasons for the decision. The opinion will discuss
the relevant facts, and apply the law to those
facts. Appellate court opinions are usually published,
thus forming a body of law, known as
precedent, that attorneys and judges can consult
for guidance in resolving similar legal questions.
FURTHER READINGS
Cohen, Jonathan Matthew. 2002. Inside Appellate Courts: The
Impact of Court Organization on Judicial Decision Making
in the United States Courts of Appeals. Ann Arbor:
Univ. of Michigan Press.
Klein, David E. 2002.Making Law in the United States Courts
of Appeals. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Appeal; Appellate Advocacy; Courts; Federal Courts.
