An appeal may only be filed after the trial court judge issues the final order in your case. A final order is an order that resolves all of the issues raised in the trial court. What this means in family law cases is that, in most cases, a party may not appeal a temporary order or an interim order to the Court of Appeals.
An appeal is the opportunity for the appellate court to review the record of the trial court, and to determine whether the trial court made certain errors. Not all errors are reviewable by an appellate court. For example, an appellate court is not able to second-guess the trial court’s determination of whether someone was truthful, or the trial court’s determination that one party was more believable than the other. Instead, the appellate court may only review whether the trial court misinterpreted or misapplied the law.
To start the appeal process, a Notice of Appeal must be filed with the Court of Appeals. The Notice of Appeal must be filed no later than 45 days after the issuance of the final order by the trial court. In the Notice of Appeal, the appealing party (called the “Appellant”) lists each of the issues he or she wishes to appeal. The Appellant must pay a $150 docket fee to the Court of Appeals, and must pay a $250 bond to the trial court to cover costs. Within 10 days after filing the Notice of Appeal, the Appellant must advise the trial court which of the documents contained in the trial court’s file the Appellant needs to be provided to the Court of Appeals. At this time, the Appellant may request that a transcript of the court hearing be prepared by a court reporter. The opposing party (called “the Appellee”) may request that additional documents be included among the documents that are to be sent by the trial court to the Court of Appeals. The Appellant then must pay the court reporter the estimated cost to prepare the transcript. The trial court has 90 days to provide the Court of Appeals with the documents requested (this is called the “Record on Appeal).
Within 40 days after the Record on Appeal is transmitted to the Court of Appeals, the Appellant must a legal brief (called an “Opening Brief”) with the Court. The Opening Brief contains the Appellant’s legal arguments, and makes specific reference to the errors the Appellant believes the trial court made. The Appellee is then required to file his or her Answer Brief within 30 days of the filing of the Opening Brief. The Appellant then gets the opportunity to file an additional brief (called a “Reply Brief”) to address the arguments raised by the Appellee. No trials are held in appellate cases, and no new evidence may be presented. The appellate court makes its decision based solely upon the briefs filed and the trial court’s record. Either party (or the Court of Appeals) may, however, request that there be oral argument presented to the Court.
