family law appeals
Bringing or Defending an Appeal
Family law cases are personal. As you fight for what’s best for your family, the process can seem long and difficult. Many people spend a significant amount of time, money, and effort assembling their family law case and bringing it to court. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily guarantee a favorable outcome.
Losses in family court can be devastating. Often these cases involve child custody or divorce settlements, which are deeply personal \matters. The appellate process provides hope after you lose your initial case. An appeal may be brought to challenge an error in a family court ruling where there was insufficient evidence to support the ruling, where the court abused its discretion, or where the court made an error in law.
The process is done on written briefing, followed by a brief oral argument at the court of appeal before a panel of three justices. Both the types of orders that can be appealed and the timeline to appeal are statutorily based. Once the timeline to bring your appeal is missed, it cannot be corrected. Promptly contact appellate counsel upon receiving your ruling if you believe the trial court may have made an error in your case.
Grounds for Appeal
Many times, appeals are confused with retrials. However, you will not be redoing the trial when you request an appeal. Instead, you are asking a higher court to review your case, the evidence, and the judge’s ruling to be sure that the decision was supported by substantial evidence, within the range of options available to the trial court, and/or supported by law.
Simply disagreeing with the ruling is insufficient, as the court of appeal’s review is guided by the applicable standard of review, which is usually one of the following:
The Decision Was Not Supported by Substantial Evidence
In some cases, a case may be overturned where it is not supported by substantial evidence. However, challenges to substantial evidence are often the most difficult cases to win on appeal, because the court of appeal does not reweigh the evidence.
In determining whether there is substantial evidence to support the trial court’s decision, the reviewing court resolves all conflicts in the evidence in the respondent’s favor, and indulges all reasonable, legitimate inferences in favor of upholding the trial court’s order. If two or more reasonable inferences can be reasonably deduced from the facts, the reviewing court has no authority to substitute its judgment for the trial court’s judgment.
In addition, the trial court’s credibility determinations are not re-visited on appeal – they are final when they get to the court of appeal. What this means is, if the court found one way or the other on the evidence, or made a call that something happened or didn’t, or decided someone was lying and the other person was telling the truth, those determinations cannot be revisited on appeal. The reason for this is because the court of appeal only reads a cold, hard transcript. They don’t get the opportunity the trial court did, to see how you both appeared when you were testifying.
It is also important to remember that you cannot introduce any new evidence when you request an appeal. The appellate courts will review your case as it is, without new evidence presented.
There Was an Error Of Law
Though the family court has a responsibility to uphold the law, sometimes mistakes are made. Examples of common mistakes by trial courts are assigning the incorrect burden of proof or failing to consider express statutory factors, such as the Family Code section 4320 factors for spousal support or the Family Code section 2030 factors for a need-based attorney fee award.
Challenges to legal errors are typically the most successful challenges on appeal, if you can demonstrate a miscarriage of justice resulting from the error – meaning the error likely prejudiced the outcome of the case.
The Court Abused its Discretion
The majority of family law cases are reviewed for abuse of discretion. Family court judges have broad discretion on many issues in family law, such as spousal support, child custody and visitation, and whether to issue a domestic violence restraining order.
On appeal, to demonstrate an abuse of discretion, you must show the decision was arbitrary and capricious, and that no reasonable judge would have made such an order. It can be a daunting hill to climb, but it can be done.
Not All Cases Are Appropriate for Appeal
Not all family law rulings result in appealable orders, and not all family law cases are likely to be successful on appeal. If yours is not appropriate for appeal, do not despair. You may have other legal avenues to pursue to address an unfavorable ruling. We will discuss your available options to determine the right approach for your family.
There Is A Time Limit
There is a jurisdictional time limit to file an appeal. Though it varies from state to state, in California, typically you have 60 days after you are served with the court’s decision to appeal, or 180 days after the court order if you are not served. Once the statutory time to appeal has expired, the Court of Appeal has no ability to hear your appeal.
Do I Need An Appellate Lawyer?
You need an Orange County appellate lawyer on your side when filing an appeal from a family court decision. Lisa McCall is both a Family Law Specialist and an Appellate Law Specialist certified by the State Board of Legal Specialization – one of approximately 12 dual specialists in the State of California. This type of litigation is difficult, and the reviewing court’s default is to side with the original decision. This means that you need an appellate lawyer who has a deep and thorough understanding of the system in order to have a chance at successfully appealing your case. Lisa McCall’s team will utilize their appellate expertise and work side by side with your trial counsel to avoid duplication of effort.
Contact Us
At the Law Offices of Lisa McCall, we are industry leaders in the appellate community. We understand the procedural intricacies of appellate law. We work hard for you and your family to ensure that we achieve the very best possible results.
For more information or to request a consultation on your appellate case, contact us today.
