Objection, your Honor!!

[AmosMoses]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana

In any state civil suit, if you loose a suit and you wish to appeal, am I correct in assuming that the only grounds for appeal are trial process "errors"? Or, can an appeal be lodged because new evidence is found, or simply because you think that the judge or jury made a "wrong" choice? I am of the belief that the latter is false and the former true, and that any appeal need be sought on trial error and within a certain period of time (a few weeks to a month or so after the judgement) but I don't really know. Better yet, can someone simply tell me what are (some) grounds for appeal? Also, for an appeal to be sought on trial error, must the point for appeal had to have been objected to at the time of trial, or if it wasn't noticed then and objected to at that time, is it no longer valid grounds for appeal? Finally, if an objection need have been lodged at time of trial, must it have been objected to by the appealing party? i.e., Can the plaintiff appeal a lost case on a certain point if the defendant formally objected to that point at trial time? Naturally, if an objection at trial time is NOT necessary to validate an appeal later, then I understand that several of these later questions are moot and need not be addressed. Thanks a bunch for your time and assistance in this matter.

 

[nhunsb1]

I looked around for a bit but there is so much information here I got myself lost.

http://www.legis.state.la.us/tsrs/search.htm

Go to the Table of Contents then Code of Civil Procedure

 

[AmosMoses]

nhunsb1

Thank you very much for your help!

 

[nhunsb1]

No problem, hope you find what you need...

 

[Boxcarbill]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana

In any state civil suit, if you loose a suit and you wish to appeal, am I correct in assuming that the only grounds for appeal are trial process "errors"? Or, can an appeal be lodged because new evidence is found, or simply because you think that the judge or jury made a "wrong" choice? I am of the belief that the latter is false and the former true, and that any appeal need be sought on trial error and within a certain period of time (a few weeks to a month or so after the judgement) but I don't really know. Better yet, can someone simply tell me what are (some) grounds for appeal? Also, for an appeal to be sought on trial error, must the point for appeal had to have been objected to at the time of trial, or if it wasn't noticed then and objected to at that time, is it no longer valid grounds for appeal? Finally, if an objection need have been lodged at time of trial, must it have been objected to by the appealing party? i.e., Can the plaintiff appeal a lost case on a certain point if the defendant formally objected to that point at trial time? Naturally, if an objection at trial time is NOT necessary to validate an appeal later, then I understand that several of these later questions are moot and need not be addressed. Thanks a bunch for your time and assistance in this matter.

The grounds for appeal depend upon what happened in the particular trial. Evidence excluded which should have been admitted; evidence admitted which should have been excluded; jury instruction error; jury misconduct, etc.. But in a nutshell, an appeal is based upon procedural error. That is an appeal is based upon questions of law not questions of fact. In some cases of error, there must be an objection to preserve error and in some instances that is not enough. For example, if something is offered into evidence and an objection is made to the evidence being admitted and the judge upholds the objection, in some instances, it is necessary to also make "an offer of proof" (done outside the jury presence) so that the appellate court will know what the evidence would have shown had it been admitted. So as you can see many of your questions depends on a lot of the facts as to who objects and what the preserves the point for appeal. But yes there is always a statutory deadline for appeal.

 

[AmosMoses]

Boxcarbill

Thanks a bunch...that was a very helpful response.