Page "Appellate procedure in the United States" Paragraph 54

A trial de novo is usually available for review of informal proceedings conducted by some minor judicial tribunals in proceedings that do not provide all the procedural attributes of a formal judicial trial.

If unchallenged, these decisions have the power to settle more minor legal disputes once and for all.

If a party is dissatisfied with the finding of such a tribunal, one generally has the power to request a trial " de novo " by a court of record.

In such a proceeding, all issues and evidence may be developed newly, as though never heard before, and one is not restricted to the evidence heard in the lower proceeding.

Sometimes, however, the decision of the lower proceeding is itself admissible as evidence, thus helping to curb frivolous appeals.