Court of Appeals

Appellate courts are very different from trail courts in many ways. The first thing that should be established is what appellate courts are. “The function of appellate courts is examining claims that the law was improperly applied or that legal procedures were not correctly followed” (Jon’a F. Meyer, 2003). In order for a case to go to the appellate courts an appeal must be made. An appeal is “a proceeding in which a case is brought before a higher court for review of a lower court’s judgment for the purpose of convincing the higher court that the lower court’s judgment was incorrect” (Merriam Webster, 2005). One major difference is that cases start in trial court, were as they are reviewed in appellate courts.

Also in appellate courts no evidence is presented, lawyers tend to argue policy and legal issues to a group of judges. As mentioned in appellate courts lawyers face a group of judges not a single judge as in trail courts. Also there are no juries in appellate courts unlike in trail courts. All decisions in an appellate court are made by a judge [ (Scalice, 2010) ]. The sole purpose of the appellate courts is to ensure that the law was applied accurately to each case. One big misunderstanding about appellate courts is that they are there to re-hear a case with evidence and all. Even if there seems to be a bad decision made in trial courts the appellate courts only overturn a case if there were legal errors if not than it will not be overturned.