Is an Appeal a do over?

Many people think that appealing a decision means that you get a fresh start, a different judge to look at all of the evidence and make a decision. That is not what happens, in appeals, with very few exceptions, a higher court, in Minnesota; the Court of Appeals, looks at the record, and, decides if the trial court made a significant legal error. This means that they look at what was said at trial, what documents, other materials were put in evidence, and, decide if the trial court made a decision that was not supported by the evidence, or, made a legal mistake that impacted the result. If there was evidence that supported the trial court decision it will not be changed, even if there was also evidence that would have supported the judge going the other way.

If your case was tried to a jury, the appeals court will look to see if there was enough evidence that would have allowed the jury to rule the way it did, if so, the verdict will be upheld, even if there was also evidence that would have supported the jury ruling the other way.

A legal error, a mistake can also be a way to win on appeal, but, for that to happen the mistake has to be major, something that probably impacted the result. Examples of mistakes, legal errors, the judge not allowing a key witness of yours to speak, or, allowing a witness for the other side to speak when the witness did not have legally relevant testimony.

Even if a mistake was made, the court of appeals then has to believe that the mistake probably impacted the result, i.e. made the judge, or jury more likely to rule against you. Even if you win at the court of appeals, that is almost never the end of it, what you get is a new trial, or, in a criminal case a dismissal of the charges against you, but, the prosecution still has a chance to prosecute you again in a new trial.

Sometimes an appeal is the way to go, but, it only makes sense to consider one in a few cases, where there were serious problems with the trial. If you are taking a case to trial, get it right the first time, if you do not, you will probably not be able to fix what happens.