Only about 10% of appeals are successful.
You will have to balance the costs of the appeal versus the likelihood that you will win.
Costs of an Appeal
1. Worth the Money?
- Filing Fee - $223 unless waived.
- Appeal Cost Bond - $250 unless waived.
- Transcript - About $150 for every hour in court.
- This cost is not waivable.
2. Worth the Time and Effort?
- Length of Case - About 1 year.
- Efforts - A 20-page research paper.
3. Worth the Conflict?
- An appeal will extend the conflict in your life.
- That will take an emotional toll on you and your family.
Limits of an Appeal
1. Assumed to be Good
- The Court of Appeals will assume the final order is acceptable.
- The burden is entirely on you to show otherwise.
2. No New Evidence
- An appellate court can only consider evidence provided at the hearing or in the motion.
- No new evidence will be accepted or considered.
3. Believability
- Only the deciding court can determine which witnesses were lying.
- Only the deciding court can determine how much to believe the exhibits.
- Your one opportunity to show that a witness was lying, or challenge the value of exhibits, happened at the hearing.
4. No New Issues
- Courts want to be as efficient as possible.
- An appeals court will only review the decisions made in the final order.
- If a Magistrate Review was required, the Court of Appeals will only consider the issues raised in the Petition for Magistrate Review.
What it Takes to Win
1. Wrong Law
- An appeals court will change the final order if the wrong law was used.
2. Clearly Wrong Facts:
- An appeals court will change the final order if:
- The deciding court made-up facts. Or,
- It made unreasonable assumptions about the facts.
3. Can't Make That Decision:
- The decision made was not among the possible decisions that could have been made.
- That happens when:
- The law was applied incorrectly,
- A factor was considered that should not have been,
- A factor was not considered that should have been, or
- A clearly wrong fact (see the section above) was relied on to make the decision.
4. Harmless Error:
- If the outcome of the case would be the same, even if the error was fixed, then the appeals court will keep the final orders anyway.