On What Grounds Can You Appeal a Civil Case?

Eventually, you may find yourself embroiled in a civil case, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant; essentially, that means you might be the one being sued or the one doing the suing. Either way, you’ll be caught up in a legal battle that you may not have much control over.

A civil case is one between private parties; this stands in contrast to criminal cases, in which one of the parties is the government. Civil cases come in a variety of forms, including contract disputes, tort liability cases, and more. They’re designed to resolve disputes peacefully and decisively.

But what happens if you’re not satisfied with the results?

The Basics of Appeal

If you’re not satisfied with the results of a civil case, you may be able to appeal it. Essentially, that means challenging the decision of the court in hopes that a higher, more authoritative court will reverse or remand it. In our judicial system, there is a hierarchy of different court systems. Every case starts at the trial court or district court level, and upon appeal, it goes to an appellate court. Depending on where you live, you might be able to appeal from the appellate court as well, going to the State Supreme Court, or even the Supreme Court of the United States (although this is exceptionally rare).

If and when your case gets to a higher court, you and the opposing party will present new materials and arguments. The appellate court judges (usually three at the first appellate level) will review all the information in front of them and either affirm the decision (meaning they’re keeping it), reverse the decision (meaning they’re finding in favor of the other party), or remand the case (meaning they’re sending it back to the trial level to resolve some matter of fact).

If you’re interested in appealing a civil case, you’ll need to hire a lawyer. Your lawyer can help you determine whether it’s worth moving forward with the appeal and guide you through the process if you decide to do it.

More Than a Disagreement: Appealing a Civil Case

There are several grounds on which you can appeal a civil case. However, you can’t appeal a case just because you’re unhappy with it or because you don’t agree with what the court said. Instead, you can only appeal a case if you can show that there was some kind of unjust outcome.

For example:

Law misinterpretation. You can appeal if you believe that the law was misinterpreted in some key way. For example, you may be able to show that the lower court interpreted a word incorrectly, or misused a piece of persuasive authority like Restatements.

Law misapplication. You can also appeal if you believe the lower court misapplied the law. For example, if the lower court used binding case authority to resolve the matter, but your case is substantially different from that case, you may be able to appeal.

Evidence issues. If there were issues with evidence, you can also appeal. If you call admissibility of evidence into question, or if there are pieces of evidence that weren’t properly considered, you may be able to appeal.

Incorrect jury instructions. During trial, juries are provided with very specific instructions for how to come to a decision. If there are any issues with these instructions, either party may be able to appeal.

Abusing discretion. Abuse of process is a common tort in which a party misuses a legal process for some ulterior motive. If you have reason to believe the lower court judge or jury acted in some unethical or unjust way, you may be able to appeal.

Other flawed processes. You can also appeal on the grounds of almost any other flawed legal process. Again, this is more than just being unhappy with the outcome; this is pinpointing some specific error or mistake in the legal process.

The Costs of Appealing a Civil Case

Appealing isn’t especially common, in part because it’s expensive. On top of additional court fees, you’ll be responsible for continuing to pay your lawyers, and there’s no guarantee that the decision is going to be reversed or modified. If you were forced to pay $5,000 in damages, and it costs approximately $15,000 to go through the work of appealing the decision, it might be in your best interest to simply live with the relatively minor injustice.

Trusting Your Attorneys

At the end of the day, you need to trust your attorneys. If your legal counsel believes it’s not in your best interest to appeal, trust their judgment. If they have a compelling reason to move forward with an appeal, it may be worth it. Legal matters are expensive, stressful, and time-consuming, but it’s also important to fight for justice.