Appeal Process | Atlanta Family Law
Appeal Process in Atlanta
Hello. My name is Scott Shaw, founder and principal of Shaw Law Firm, LLC. A law firm I founded in 1995. Child custody along with divorce and other areas of family law are our only area of legal practice. We do not accept any other types of cases.
What if the Judge Gets it Wrong?
In this video, I will be discussing the topic of appeals. What happens when the trial judge gets it wrong? It is very frustrating and can be very disillusioning actually, as we believe trial judges know the law and will apply the law properly. And for the most part they do. However when they don’t, what happens? The answer is you appeal.
In the past three months alone, we have won appeals and have overturned the decisions of three different trial judges. And we expect to win a fourth one shortly. In some of these cases, the law is rather plain and clear, at least to me, and yet the judge decided otherwise. So we appeal these cases to try to fix these things. It can be disillusioning to have to deal with an appeal. You feel like you did something wrong, or you lost the case. But that is not always the case.
Example Appeal Litigation
As an example, one appeal that we just won involve a case where the trial court personally sanction me. Why? Because I made a legal argument that happened to be right. But the court thought it was wrong, and the opposing attorney to this day still does not understand it. Yet to me it was simple and straightforward, and I knew I was right. So sure enough we appealed it. And on appeal, not only did the judge of the supreme court overturn the sanctions against me, the court also said I was right. My client won the case.
So long and short, sometimes trial courts do not get it right. And when they do not, we still have our remedy, and we can still win the case. At Shaw Law Firm we have a track record of successfully handling appeals, and we welcome your inquiries regarding that. Keep in mind that to appeal the decision, there are tight deadlines. Usually you have to file your endorsed appeal no later than 30 days from the date of entry of the order that you want to appeal. We will be happy to speak with you regarding any potential appeal issue that you may have. Thank you.
By: Scott Shaw