In United States appellate procedure, an appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law.

The right to file an appeal can also vary from state to state ; for example, the New Jersey Constitution vests judicial power in a Supreme Court, a Superior Court, and other courts of limited jurisdiction, with an appellate court being part of the Superior Court.

An appellate court is a court that hears cases on appeal from another court.

Depending on the particular legal rules that apply to each circumstance, a party to a court case who is unhappy with the result might be able to challenge that result in an appellate court on specific grounds.

The appellate court cannot refuse to listen to the appeal.

An appeal " by leave " or " permission " requires the appellant to obtain leave to appeal ; in such a situation either or both of the lower court and the appellate court may have the discretion to grant or refuse the appellant's demand to appeal the lower court's decision.

Likewise, in some jurisdictions, the state or prosecution may appeal an issue of law " by leave " from the trial court and / or the appellate court.

For example, a criminal defendant may be convicted in state court, and lose on " direct appeal " to higher state appellate courts, and if unsuccessful, mount a " collateral " action such as filing for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal courts.

In Anglo-American common law courts, appellate review of lower court decisions may also be obtained by filing a petition for review by prerogative writ in certain cases.

That is, it goes to the intermediate appellate court, followed by the highest court.

For example, the appellant might have to file the notice of appeal with the appellate court, or with the court from which the appeal is taken, or both.

Generally speaking the appellate court examines the record of evidence presented in the trial court and the law that the lower court applied and decides whether that decision was legally sound or not.

If the appellate court finds no defect, it " affirms " the judgment.

If the appellate court does find a legal defect in the decision " below " ( i. e., in the lower court ), it may " modify " the ruling to correct the defect, or it may nullify (" reverse " or " vacate ") the whole decision or any part of it.

Generally, there is no trial in an appellate court, only consideration of the record of the evidence presented to the trial court and all the pre-trial and trial court proceedings are reviewed — unless the appeal is by way of re-hearing, new evidence will usually only be considered on appeal in " very " rare instances, for example if that material evidence was unavailable to a party for some very significant reason such as prosecutorial misconduct.

In some systems, an appellate court will only consider the written decision of the lower court, together with any written evidence that was before that court and is relevant to the appeal.

In other systems, the appellate court will normally consider the record of the lower court.

In cases where a judge rather than a jury decided issues of fact, an appellate court will apply an " abuse of discretion " standard of review.

Hence, such an appellate court will not consider an appellant's argument if it is based on a theory that is raised for the first time in the appeal.

Some appellate courts, particularly supreme courts, have the power of discretionary review, meaning that they can decide whether they will hear an appeal brought in a particular case.

If that judgment goes to appeal, the appellate court will have the opportunity to review both the precedent and the case under appeal, perhaps overruling the previous case law by setting a new precedent of higher authority.

The normal 266-day human gestation period is so short that the pregnancy will come to term before the usual appellate process is complete.

If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom will survive much beyond the trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied.

Usually, an intermediate appellate court, if there is one in that state, often called the state court of appeals, will review the decision of the trial court.

However, where a Superior Court lies within one of the appellate districts actually involved in such a conflict, it will usually follow the rule of its own Court of appeal.

The appellate court ( which may be structured as an intermediate appellate court ) and / or a higher court will then affirm the judgment, decline to hear it ( which effectively affirms it ), reverse, or vacate and remand, which involves sending the lawsuit back to the lower trial court to address an unresolved issue, or possibly for a whole new trial.

Furthermore, appellate courts in such jurisdictions will not question the facts as found by a judge or jury in the trial court as long as there was some evidence in the record to support such findings, even if the appellate judge himself or herself would not have personally believed the underlying evidence if he or she had been present in the trial court when such evidence was entered into the record.

In rarer instances, an appellate court will order hearing en banc as an initial matter, instead of the panel hearing it first.

Therefore due appellate processes will be followed to ensure the rule of law ".

In American courts, the brief typically has the following parts: a table of contents ; a table of authorities listing the cases, statutes, and regulations that are cited ; a presentation of the issues under review by the court, usually in only one sentence if possible ; a statement of the case that presents the relevant facts and the previous history of the case in the lower courts ; a summary of the legal standard of review that the appellate court should use in evaluating the decision of the lower court ; a summary of the party's argument ; and the full discussion of the legal and / or policy arguments explaining why the party believes it should win the case, which will be the most lengthy portion of the brief.

It will, from the outset, be able to shoulder its full share of an appellate overload which for many years has been staggering.

The legal issues continue in these cases, and there may be issues that will take the cases back into the appellate court system of Tennessee.

During the appeals process State's Attorneys, in many cases, hands all relative prosecutorial materials to a State Appellate Prosecutor who in turn will represent the state in appellate courts with the advice and consent of the State's Attorney.

Of course, an appellate public defender, upon reviewing the trial record, will often find overwhelming evidence of the client's guilt and conclude there are no reasonable grounds for an appeal.

In appellate review, error typically refers to mistakes made by a trial court or some other court of first instance in applying the law in a particular legal case.

In addition to jury sentencing through the guidance of aggravating factors, a constitutional capital sentencing scheme must provide for appellate review of the death sentence, typically by the state's supreme court.

In addition to the motion, the out-of-jurisdiction attorney is typically required to provide the court with a statement from his local bar association indicating that he is a member in good standing and also pay a small fee to the court or its local bar association ( e. g. $ 25 per year in Delaware federal court, $ 200 in New York City federal court, $ 301 per case for Massachusetts appellate courts ).

Because constitutional claims are of great magnitude, appellate courts might be more lenient to review the claim even if it was not preserved.

Certain jurisdictions permit certain appeals to cause the trial to be heard afresh in the appellate court.

" Generally speaking, an appellate court's judgment provides ' the final directive of the appeals courts as to the matter appealed, setting out with specificity the court's determination that the action appealed from should be affirmed, reversed, remanded or modified '".

However, appeals may be costly, and the appellate court must find an error on the part of the court below that justifies upsetting the verdict.

In the higher court / appellate court ( lagmannsrett ) there is a jury ( lagrette ) of 10 members, which need a minimum of seven votes to be able to convict.

Sometimes these differences may not be resolved and it may be necessary to distinguish how the law is applied in one district, province, division or appellate department.

An appellate court may also propound an entirely new and different analysis from that of junior courts, and may or may not be bound by its own previous decisions, or in any case may distinguish them on the facts.

Precedent of a United States court of appeals may be overruled only by the court en banc, that is, a session of all the active appellate judges of the circuit, or by the United States Supreme Court.

If an appellate court determines that reversible error occurred, it may reverse the judgment of the lower court and order a new trial on such terms and conditions as are found to be just.

These rules govern how an appeal may be commenced, what kind of notice ( if any ) is required, the types of briefs, pleadings or statements of case, motions, and orders allowed in appeals, the timing and manner of the appeal, the conduct of appellate hearings, the process for decisions, various available remedies, and how the courts and clerks must function.

But such petitions tend to be subject to severe length constraints, and are necessarily much more narrowly targeted ( usually to one or two particularly prejudicial errors ) than a long opening appellate brief to an intermediate appellate court ( which may touch upon several alleged errors by the trial court ).

Maryland's jury trial courts are called " Circuit Courts " ( non-jury trials are usually conducted by the " District Courts ," whose decisions may be appealed to the Circuit Courts ), and the intermediate appellate court is called the " Court of Special Appeals ".

In common law systems, one feature that distinguishes an appellate proceeding from a trial de novo is that new evidence may not ordinarily be presented in an appeal, though there are rare instances when it may be allowed — usually evidence that came to light only after the trial and could not, in all diligence, have been presented in the lower court.

During the Constitutional Convention, a proposal was made for the Supreme Court to be the only federal court, having both original jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction.

In other cases, the Supreme Court has only appellate jurisdiction, which may be regulated by the Congress.

The appellate courts affirmed this finding ; however, today, an appellate court would likely find this definition to be flawed.