Appeals in Criminal Law

appeal. jpgIn law, an appeal is a process for requesting a formal change to an official decision.

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. These grounds typically could include errors of law, fact, or procedure (in the United States, due process).

In different jurisdictions, appellate courts are also called appeals courts, courts of appeals, superior courts, or supreme courts.

Criminal law states that any criminal convicted of a crime can opt for a criminal appeal. An appeal is something that is filed to determine whether or not a verdict or court decision was accurate or fair. The criminal appeal is a process that involves a hearing or review of a case of the verdict by a higher court. This does not mean the case will be retried and many times nothing new or substantial is found. Cases that are reviewed go to a higher court for further investigation, the appeal is often a long process if anything new is found. Criminal law did not always have the appeal option however , but through years of reform and restructuring of criminal law, it was added just in case any mistakes were made. Criminal law before appeals suggested that the courts decision was absolutely final and that there would be no exceptions to the rule. Nowadays, there is a criminal appeal because people do make mistakes, or there is often new evidence found after the case has been closed. imonomy - free enrichment tools for your site.

Who Can Appeal

A party who files an appeal is called an appellant or petitioner, and a party on the other side is called a respondent (in most common-law countries) or an appellee (in the United States). The appellant is the party who, having lost part or all their claim in a lower court decision, is appealing to a higher court to have their case reconsidered. This is usually done on the basis that the lower court judge erred in the application of law, but it may also be possible to appeal on the basis of court misconduct, or that a finding of fact was entirely unreasonable to make on the evidence.

If you want to know more about Criminal Law, you can read more articles at Fresno Criminal Attorney.