Marital relationships are among the hardest to maintain. From time to time, issues and disagreements arise between spouses, some that can easily be resolved by simply sitting down and having a talk. Others require one or each of the parties to put some work into it and more often than not, they get resolved with time and commitment. However, it reaches a point where the union between the two hits a rock and the best solution is to part ways, either through divorce or separation.
If you guessed right, the latter scenario is where family law courts come into play. In most cases, you’ll find one of the parties filing for divorce, whose terms are determined by and with the help of the courts. Now, if your partner seeks divorce, the decisions and rulings of the family law court may not always be in your favor and for sure, they may not always seem fair to you. This is where a family law appeal comes in. Starting with a brief definition of what an appeal entails, here are a few ways a family law appeals attorney can help you when filing an appeal in a family law case.
What’s an Appeal All About?
In most cases, family law cases are heard and determined by a Federal Circuit Court or family court judge in marital disputes. An appeal basically involves trying to ask and convince a higher court to review, drop or reconsider the decisions made by a lower court. The person filing the appeal does so with the hope of getting a different, more favorable ruling/decision than the previous one. Nonetheless, you need to file an appeal based on legal grounds that the previous decisions were unfair or erroneous, and this is why you need an experienced family law attorney to help you.
How an Appeals Attorney Can Help?
Explain the appeal process
As earlier mentioned, appealing a family law decision is a process that has a set of rules, conditions, and timelines governing it. For instance, an appellant is required to file a notice of appeal within 28 days after an order is made. It is filed in the Regional Appeal Registry. They are also required to pay a certain fee, which may vary from one jurisdiction to the other. From there, the appellant also has 28 days to file what is known as a draft index to the book of appeals, after which the appeal is listed for hearing and document presentation. Simply put, it can sometimes feel like an overwhelming process to the regular person, but a family law appeals attorney can help explain the entire process to you. If you get a good, experienced attorney in family law appeal matters, it will be easier to understand the process so you can navigate and resolve the issue smoothly.
Providing legal advice and establishing grounds
Now, apart from just plainly explaining the process to you, a good family law attorney can help you make sound decisions and take informed steps before and when filing an appeal. Needless to reiterate, you can’t just wake up one morning and decide to appeal a family law court’s decision just because you don’t like it. There have to be legitimate reasons, proof, and relevance that indeed the decision/s in the previous hearing was unfair. A good family law attorney will sit down with you, listen to your issue and help determine whether or not you have legal grounds to help convince the appeal court otherwise. Your lawyer will help establish proof-backed grounds for filing an appeal such as:
- Errors made by the previous court
- Misrepresentation/misunderstanding of facts
- New relevant facts that could change the outcome
- Misapplication or misunderstanding of the law
Your attorney will also use their expertise to develop an action plan that will help investigate the entire case, establish if you have legal grounds to file an appeal, and even file it on your behalf. They help determine whether you should appeal just temporary orders or the final order.
With the help of an experienced attorney, the family law appeal process will be swifter and less stressful for you. You’ll be able to beat deadlines and hopefully get a more favorable decision from the courts without having to spend too much money or get locked out by the strict deadlines involved. While it may not make divorce less bitter for some people, working with a good family law attorney when filing a family law appeal is one of the best ways to get peace of mind.