The civil appeals process
An appeal is very different from a trial. No evidence is presented for a judge or jury to weigh. No witnesses are called. Almost the whole appeal is conducted on paper. And instead of there being just one judge, there is a panel of three (and, occasionally, more). An appeal is not a second trial, but an opportunity to correct legal error that was prejudicial.
Which jurisdiction?
Whether your appeal will be heard in state or federal court depends on where the lawsuit has been litigated thus far. If you are appealing a case that was litigated in state court, your appeal will go to the California Court of Appeal. The decisions of the California Court of Appeal are subject to review by the California Supreme Court.
The California Court of Appeal is divided into six districts, some with divisions in more than one location. Cases are sent to the district in which the trial court is located.
The federal Court of Appeals acts as the court of review for decisions of the federal trial courts — known as “District Courts” — within its jurisdictional area. It also has jurisdiction to review decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals, District Court appellate decisions in bankruptcy cases, and decisions of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panels. In addition, it reviews directly certain decisions of federal administrative agencies and the tax court. The decisions of the federal Court of Appeals are subject to review by the United States Supreme Court.
The federal appellate system is divided into “circuits.” California is covered by the Ninth Circuit, which also embraces a number of other western states. Within California, the Ninth Circuit has locations in San Francisco and Pasadena.
The basic function of the appellate process is the same in federal court as in the state system — in other words, the process is not to retry cases, but to look for prejudicial errors of law.
At a “big picture” level, the process is similar in the two systems. However, appeals in federal courts are subject to a completely different set of procedural rules from those in state court — this means, for example, that different deadlines apply. Federal appeals also usually take quite a lot longer. (Except where stated to the contrary, the information provided in the following procedural description refers to the California state courts.)
Notice of appeal
The first procedural step is to file the notice of appeal. This is filed in the trial court — and it must be done within a specified time. If a party is late, the Court of Appeal will have no jurisdiction and the matter will never be heard. The importance of a timely filing cannot be overstated — although there is some degree of flexibility with respect to deadlines going forward, there is no flexibility whatsoever in the initial deadline to start the appeal.
Determining the deadline for filing the notice of appeal can be tricky. There are various possible deadlines depending on how the judgment being appealed was noticed to the parties and also on whether post-trial motions were filed.
Rule 8.104 of the California Rules of Court defines what it terms the “normal” deadline in state court as the earliest of: (1) 60 days after the superior court clerk mails the party filing the notice of appeal a document entitled “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-stamped copy of the judgment, showing the date either was mailed; (2) 60 days after the party filing the notice of appeal serves or is served by a party with a document entitled “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-stamped copy of the judgment, accompanied by proof of service; or (3) 180 days after entry of judgment.
With federal appeals, a litigant is usually up against a 30-day clock to file the notice of appeal — although it is not always intuitive as to when that clock starts.
A notice of appeal is a surprisingly simple document. In state court, it is often filed using a simple one-page form.
The notice of appeal does not need to include a statement of the grounds for the appeal. What it does need to do is to identify each appealable order or judgment being appealed.
You do not have to list all the preliminary orders you may want to challenge leading up to that appealable order if they were not themselves appealable in their own right. For example, a decision to exclude a piece of evidence would not be appealable in its own right. This doesn’t mean that you can’t argue to the Court of Appeal about it. It simply means that you don’t have to identify it in the notice of appeal. To put it another way, the appealable order or judgment subsumes all nonappealable orders that preceded it.
Determining what constitutes an appealable order can itself be tricky. The final judgment following a trial is, obviously, appealable — as is the final judgment dismissing a case without trial. But some other orders in the course of litigation are also immediately appealable, although most are not — the system’s general preference is that you should batch all of your grievances in one appeal at the end, rather than file them on a piecemeal basis. It is sometimes far from intuitive as to which orders that do not dispose of an entire case are among the minority that are immediately appealable. That’s one reason why involving an appellate specialist early on makes sense. (Keep in mind, though, that nonappealable orders may be subject to challenge by a “writ petition.” Writs are discussed elsewhere on this Web site.)
The consequences of making a mistake with the initial determination as to whether an order is appealable can be serious. If an order is not appealable, a litigant will waste money by starting an appeal. Worse still, if an order is appealable, but a litigant does not realize this, the appeal will be waived if not filed in a timely manner. In other words, if an order is appealable, you don't have a choice of appealing right away or saving it up to the end of the case — you have to appeal it now or never.
Although a notice of appeal subsumes nonappealable orders leading up to it, it generally does not cover any orders that may follow afterwards. For the most part, the filing of a notice of appeal puts a stop to further proceedings in the trial court while the appeal is ongoing, as jurisdiction of the matter transfers to the Court of Appeal. However, there are exceptions that allow for different aspects of a case to be active in both courts at the same time. An example is where a trial court makes an award of attorney fees in a case after an appeal has been started with respect to the underlying judgment. In that situation, it may be necessary to file a second appeal and then to try to get it consolidated with the first. Again, these are issues where the advice of a specialist can avoid a lot of problems.
There are two filing fees to start an appeal in state court. One is $655, which goes to the Court of Appeal. The other is $100, which goes to the Superior Court.
The filing of the notice of appeal is the start of a lengthy process. Although the steps outlined below may not appear numerous, the whole process generally takes 12-18 months and sometimes more.
Designation of the appellate record
The “record” on appeal is the universe of material about what took place in the trial court. For the most part, the parties can only make arguments based on what is in the record. If something is not in the record, it generally does not exist for appellate purposes.
The party bringing the appeal has the responsibility to designate what goes into the record, although the other side can add their own designation if important things were left out. As a general rule, the Court of Appeal will only reverse where error is apparent in the record. All presumptions are indulged to support an appealed order on matters as to which the record is silent. The proper compilation of the record is, therefore, crucial.
The record consists of a transcript of the trial court proceedings together with various documents that were filed in the trial court. The record is assembled in tidy bound volumes.
The transcript of courtroom proceedings is known as the “Reporter’s Transcript.” The document portion of the record is known as the “Clerk’s Transcript” — but that term is a little confusing, because the Clerk’s Transcript is not, in fact, a “transcript” in the commonly used sense of that word but, rather, a bound volume of documents (such as pleadings, motions, orders, etc.).
The Reporter’s Transcript and Clerk’s Transcript are prepared by the trial court, and then sent to the Court of Appeal. As an alternative to having the trial court prepare a Clerk’s Transcript, the parties can self-assemble something equivalent, which is known as an “Appendix.” There can be advantages in opting for an Appendix (principally because you can keep your options open for much longer as to what goes into the record), although this varies from case to case.
Decisions about the record have to be made very early on in the appeals process. The “notice designating the record” is due only 10 days after the notice of appeal. It may be possible to augment the record later on, but there is no absolute right to do so.
Like the notice of appeal, the designation of the record is filed in the trial court, not at the Court of Appeal.
Stays on appeal
One of the most commonly asked questions is whether a judgment or order is still in effect once an appeal has been filed or whether it is “on hold.” The answer is that “it depends.”
The default rule under California law is that the filing of a notice of appeal stays a judgment or order automatically. However, there are significant exceptions, which together seem to swallow up the rule. Perhaps the biggest of these involves money judgments. A money judgment is not stayed on appeal (unless the money is only for costs and attorney fees). In order to stay it, the party who was unsuccessful at trial needs to post a bond or other form of undertaking. The bond must be for 1.5 times the amount of the judgment. Although it is theoretically possible to seek a waiver of the bond requirement, these are very rarely granted.
Bonds can also stay other types of judgments or orders where the stay is not automatic. There, the size of the bond is normally set by the trial court.
Sometimes, there are gray areas as to whether a particular order falls into a category where the stay is or is not automatic. This is another example of where the early involvement of an appellate specialist can be helpful.
Early filings in the Court of Appeal
After a notice of appeal is filed, the case transfers to the Court of Appeal. About two weeks later, the appellant — i.e., the party who filed the appeal — will receive a communication from the Court of Appeal asking for various preliminary papers to be filed. These papers vary from district to district, but include something called a Civil Case Information Statement, which gives the court a very general heads-up about the subject matter of the case and enables it to conduct a preliminary screening to check that the appeal is both timely and of an order that is appealable. However, this still isn’t the point at which an appellant needs to lay out the grounds for the appeal.
The lull in activity
Typically, the time from when a notice of appeal is filed until the time when the record is filed with the Court of Appeal is about three months, although it can be longer or shorter. (Remember that it is the Superior Court that generally files the record — at least, the portion comprising the Reporter’s Transcript — with the Court of Appeal, not the appellant.)
After the flurry of activity right at the start of the appeal process, the period while the record is being prepared generally sees little or no activity — at least, none that is visible to the court or to the opposing party. The benefit of having this lull before the real work begins is that a lawyer who is brought in to handle the appeal can schedule the case into his or her workflow.
Briefing
The filing of the record starts the clock for written briefing — the most important part of the appeals process. This is when an appellate lawyer goes through the entire record and starts crafting the written argument.
The default deadline is that the appellant’s opening brief is due 40 days after the record is filed. As a practical matter, this rarely allows enough time and extensions of 30-60 days, or more, are very common. This brief from the opposing party — known as the “respondent” — is due 30 days after the appellant’s opening brief is filed, but, again, extensions are normally obtained. The appellant then has an opportunity to have the last written word with a reply brief, which is due 20 days after the respondent’s brief.
The briefs tell the facts and procedural history of the case and argue the law. All facts must be supported with citations to the record. All points in an argument must be properly arranged with headings, and all arguments must be supported with citations to previous appellate decisions, statutes, or other legal authority. Appellate briefs are heavyweight documents in every sense of the word. They can be up to 14,000 words long — that’s much longer than any written argument that gets filed in a trial court. They were traditionally bound with colored covers depending on their type (e.g., green for an appellant’s opening brief and yellow for a respondent’s brief). However, electronic filing is now the norm and hard-copy briefs are a dying breed
The written briefs are by far the most important — and time-consuming — part of an appeal. There is more about briefs in the section of this Web site discussing appellate skills.
Motions
At various stages of an appeal, each side may bring written motions. Like motions in trial courts, these can raise both procedural and substantive issues. They can range from simple requests (technically known as “applications”), such as ones for extensions of time, to motions seeking the involuntary dismissal of an entire appeal (if, for example, there’s an argument that the notice of appeal was untimely) or the striking of all or part of the other side’s brief (if, for example, it cites to matters outside the record). There is generally no oral argument with appellate motions — it is all done on paper.
The importance of appellate motions should not be overlooked. As the Court of Appeal remarked in one published opinion, “[t]hough among the least celebrated functions of appellate courts, the processing of a wide range of motions, applications and other requests for relief during the pendency of an appeal is an important aspect of the appellate process.” (Bryan v. Bank of America (2001) 86 Cal.App.4th 185, 193-194.)
Settlement procedures during the appellate process
Settlement of cases after trial has long been part of the civil litigation process. For example, it is quite common for the losing party at trial to offer not to appeal if the winner accepts reduced damages. Likewise, a party defending a trial court outcome might be willing to make some compromises in order to avoid the uncertainties, expense, and delays of an appeal.
In recent years, the courts themselves have become involved in facilitating mediation between parties after an appeal has been filed. Within the state appellate system, some districts are more proactive than others when it comes to promoting settlement. There are differing views as to how desirable it is to have appellate courts actively promote settlement through mediation. Some see it as a means of reducing workloads during a time of budgetary constraints. Others take the view that this interferes with the core role of the appellate courts, which is to decide cases and, thereby, add to and enrich the common law.
Oral argument
At some point after briefing, the parties are given the opportunity to have oral argument in front of the panel of three judges deciding the case. Oral argument is short and, ideally, involves not so much a lawyer delivering a monologue, as making an argument that is interrupted by pointed questions from the bench. Often, the questions dictate the rest of the argument. There is no right to oral argument in federal court. It is by invitation.
Oral argument is the most visible part of an appeal, but is typically the least important, especially in state court. Again, there is more about oral argument in the section of this Web site discussing appellate skills.
Decision
The court’s decision is issued in the form of a written opinion, which usually comes within 90 days of oral argument.
Beyond the decision
If the decision is unfavorable, there are other procedures one can attempt — a petition for rehearing to the court that has just decided the appeal or trying to take the case to the California Supreme Court.
A petition for rehearing is generally only appropriate if there is an obvious error on the face of the court’s decision, as opposed to a disagreement about the legal issues involved — for example, if the court clearly misstated an objective fact in the record or failed to address an issue. It is not appropriate to ask the court simply to think again about its legal conclusions. Very few petitions for rehearing result in a substantive modification of an opinion.
If you just disagree with the Court of Appeal’s decision, your next stop is generally the California Supreme Court. (This assumes that you are appealing from a state court decision. If it began as a federal case, the progression would be from the trial court to the US Court of Appeals and then to the US Supreme Court.) Click here to go to the portion of this Web site dealing with Supreme Court review.
Which jurisdiction?
Whether your appeal will be heard in state or federal court depends on where the lawsuit has been litigated thus far. If you are appealing a case that was litigated in state court, your appeal will go to the California Court of Appeal. The decisions of the California Court of Appeal are subject to review by the California Supreme Court.
The California Court of Appeal is divided into six districts, some with divisions in more than one location. Cases are sent to the district in which the trial court is located.
The federal Court of Appeals acts as the court of review for decisions of the federal trial courts — known as “District Courts” — within its jurisdictional area. It also has jurisdiction to review decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals, District Court appellate decisions in bankruptcy cases, and decisions of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panels. In addition, it reviews directly certain decisions of federal administrative agencies and the tax court. The decisions of the federal Court of Appeals are subject to review by the United States Supreme Court.
The federal appellate system is divided into “circuits.” California is covered by the Ninth Circuit, which also embraces a number of other western states. Within California, the Ninth Circuit has locations in San Francisco and Pasadena.
The basic function of the appellate process is the same in federal court as in the state system — in other words, the process is not to retry cases, but to look for prejudicial errors of law.
At a “big picture” level, the process is similar in the two systems. However, appeals in federal courts are subject to a completely different set of procedural rules from those in state court — this means, for example, that different deadlines apply. Federal appeals also usually take quite a lot longer. (Except where stated to the contrary, the information provided in the following procedural description refers to the California state courts.)
Notice of appeal
The first procedural step is to file the notice of appeal. This is filed in the trial court — and it must be done within a specified time. If a party is late, the Court of Appeal will have no jurisdiction and the matter will never be heard. The importance of a timely filing cannot be overstated — although there is some degree of flexibility with respect to deadlines going forward, there is no flexibility whatsoever in the initial deadline to start the appeal.
Determining the deadline for filing the notice of appeal can be tricky. There are various possible deadlines depending on how the judgment being appealed was noticed to the parties and also on whether post-trial motions were filed.
Rule 8.104 of the California Rules of Court defines what it terms the “normal” deadline in state court as the earliest of: (1) 60 days after the superior court clerk mails the party filing the notice of appeal a document entitled “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-stamped copy of the judgment, showing the date either was mailed; (2) 60 days after the party filing the notice of appeal serves or is served by a party with a document entitled “Notice of Entry” of judgment or a file-stamped copy of the judgment, accompanied by proof of service; or (3) 180 days after entry of judgment.
With federal appeals, a litigant is usually up against a 30-day clock to file the notice of appeal — although it is not always intuitive as to when that clock starts.
A notice of appeal is a surprisingly simple document. In state court, it is often filed using a simple one-page form.
The notice of appeal does not need to include a statement of the grounds for the appeal. What it does need to do is to identify each appealable order or judgment being appealed.
You do not have to list all the preliminary orders you may want to challenge leading up to that appealable order if they were not themselves appealable in their own right. For example, a decision to exclude a piece of evidence would not be appealable in its own right. This doesn’t mean that you can’t argue to the Court of Appeal about it. It simply means that you don’t have to identify it in the notice of appeal. To put it another way, the appealable order or judgment subsumes all nonappealable orders that preceded it.
Determining what constitutes an appealable order can itself be tricky. The final judgment following a trial is, obviously, appealable — as is the final judgment dismissing a case without trial. But some other orders in the course of litigation are also immediately appealable, although most are not — the system’s general preference is that you should batch all of your grievances in one appeal at the end, rather than file them on a piecemeal basis. It is sometimes far from intuitive as to which orders that do not dispose of an entire case are among the minority that are immediately appealable. That’s one reason why involving an appellate specialist early on makes sense. (Keep in mind, though, that nonappealable orders may be subject to challenge by a “writ petition.” Writs are discussed elsewhere on this Web site.)
The consequences of making a mistake with the initial determination as to whether an order is appealable can be serious. If an order is not appealable, a litigant will waste money by starting an appeal. Worse still, if an order is appealable, but a litigant does not realize this, the appeal will be waived if not filed in a timely manner. In other words, if an order is appealable, you don't have a choice of appealing right away or saving it up to the end of the case — you have to appeal it now or never.
Although a notice of appeal subsumes nonappealable orders leading up to it, it generally does not cover any orders that may follow afterwards. For the most part, the filing of a notice of appeal puts a stop to further proceedings in the trial court while the appeal is ongoing, as jurisdiction of the matter transfers to the Court of Appeal. However, there are exceptions that allow for different aspects of a case to be active in both courts at the same time. An example is where a trial court makes an award of attorney fees in a case after an appeal has been started with respect to the underlying judgment. In that situation, it may be necessary to file a second appeal and then to try to get it consolidated with the first. Again, these are issues where the advice of a specialist can avoid a lot of problems.
There are two filing fees to start an appeal in state court. One is $655, which goes to the Court of Appeal. The other is $100, which goes to the Superior Court.
The filing of the notice of appeal is the start of a lengthy process. Although the steps outlined below may not appear numerous, the whole process generally takes 12-18 months and sometimes more.
Designation of the appellate record
The “record” on appeal is the universe of material about what took place in the trial court. For the most part, the parties can only make arguments based on what is in the record. If something is not in the record, it generally does not exist for appellate purposes.
The party bringing the appeal has the responsibility to designate what goes into the record, although the other side can add their own designation if important things were left out. As a general rule, the Court of Appeal will only reverse where error is apparent in the record. All presumptions are indulged to support an appealed order on matters as to which the record is silent. The proper compilation of the record is, therefore, crucial.
The record consists of a transcript of the trial court proceedings together with various documents that were filed in the trial court. The record is assembled in tidy bound volumes.
The transcript of courtroom proceedings is known as the “Reporter’s Transcript.” The document portion of the record is known as the “Clerk’s Transcript” — but that term is a little confusing, because the Clerk’s Transcript is not, in fact, a “transcript” in the commonly used sense of that word but, rather, a bound volume of documents (such as pleadings, motions, orders, etc.).
The Reporter’s Transcript and Clerk’s Transcript are prepared by the trial court, and then sent to the Court of Appeal. As an alternative to having the trial court prepare a Clerk’s Transcript, the parties can self-assemble something equivalent, which is known as an “Appendix.” There can be advantages in opting for an Appendix (principally because you can keep your options open for much longer as to what goes into the record), although this varies from case to case.
Decisions about the record have to be made very early on in the appeals process. The “notice designating the record” is due only 10 days after the notice of appeal. It may be possible to augment the record later on, but there is no absolute right to do so.
Like the notice of appeal, the designation of the record is filed in the trial court, not at the Court of Appeal.
Stays on appeal
One of the most commonly asked questions is whether a judgment or order is still in effect once an appeal has been filed or whether it is “on hold.” The answer is that “it depends.”
The default rule under California law is that the filing of a notice of appeal stays a judgment or order automatically. However, there are significant exceptions, which together seem to swallow up the rule. Perhaps the biggest of these involves money judgments. A money judgment is not stayed on appeal (unless the money is only for costs and attorney fees). In order to stay it, the party who was unsuccessful at trial needs to post a bond or other form of undertaking. The bond must be for 1.5 times the amount of the judgment. Although it is theoretically possible to seek a waiver of the bond requirement, these are very rarely granted.
Bonds can also stay other types of judgments or orders where the stay is not automatic. There, the size of the bond is normally set by the trial court.
Sometimes, there are gray areas as to whether a particular order falls into a category where the stay is or is not automatic. This is another example of where the early involvement of an appellate specialist can be helpful.
Early filings in the Court of Appeal
After a notice of appeal is filed, the case transfers to the Court of Appeal. About two weeks later, the appellant — i.e., the party who filed the appeal — will receive a communication from the Court of Appeal asking for various preliminary papers to be filed. These papers vary from district to district, but include something called a Civil Case Information Statement, which gives the court a very general heads-up about the subject matter of the case and enables it to conduct a preliminary screening to check that the appeal is both timely and of an order that is appealable. However, this still isn’t the point at which an appellant needs to lay out the grounds for the appeal.
The lull in activity
Typically, the time from when a notice of appeal is filed until the time when the record is filed with the Court of Appeal is about three months, although it can be longer or shorter. (Remember that it is the Superior Court that generally files the record — at least, the portion comprising the Reporter’s Transcript — with the Court of Appeal, not the appellant.)
After the flurry of activity right at the start of the appeal process, the period while the record is being prepared generally sees little or no activity — at least, none that is visible to the court or to the opposing party. The benefit of having this lull before the real work begins is that a lawyer who is brought in to handle the appeal can schedule the case into his or her workflow.
Briefing
The filing of the record starts the clock for written briefing — the most important part of the appeals process. This is when an appellate lawyer goes through the entire record and starts crafting the written argument.
The default deadline is that the appellant’s opening brief is due 40 days after the record is filed. As a practical matter, this rarely allows enough time and extensions of 30-60 days, or more, are very common. This brief from the opposing party — known as the “respondent” — is due 30 days after the appellant’s opening brief is filed, but, again, extensions are normally obtained. The appellant then has an opportunity to have the last written word with a reply brief, which is due 20 days after the respondent’s brief.
The briefs tell the facts and procedural history of the case and argue the law. All facts must be supported with citations to the record. All points in an argument must be properly arranged with headings, and all arguments must be supported with citations to previous appellate decisions, statutes, or other legal authority. Appellate briefs are heavyweight documents in every sense of the word. They can be up to 14,000 words long — that’s much longer than any written argument that gets filed in a trial court. They were traditionally bound with colored covers depending on their type (e.g., green for an appellant’s opening brief and yellow for a respondent’s brief). However, electronic filing is now the norm and hard-copy briefs are a dying breed
The written briefs are by far the most important — and time-consuming — part of an appeal. There is more about briefs in the section of this Web site discussing appellate skills.
Motions
At various stages of an appeal, each side may bring written motions. Like motions in trial courts, these can raise both procedural and substantive issues. They can range from simple requests (technically known as “applications”), such as ones for extensions of time, to motions seeking the involuntary dismissal of an entire appeal (if, for example, there’s an argument that the notice of appeal was untimely) or the striking of all or part of the other side’s brief (if, for example, it cites to matters outside the record). There is generally no oral argument with appellate motions — it is all done on paper.
The importance of appellate motions should not be overlooked. As the Court of Appeal remarked in one published opinion, “[t]hough among the least celebrated functions of appellate courts, the processing of a wide range of motions, applications and other requests for relief during the pendency of an appeal is an important aspect of the appellate process.” (Bryan v. Bank of America (2001) 86 Cal.App.4th 185, 193-194.)
Settlement procedures during the appellate process
Settlement of cases after trial has long been part of the civil litigation process. For example, it is quite common for the losing party at trial to offer not to appeal if the winner accepts reduced damages. Likewise, a party defending a trial court outcome might be willing to make some compromises in order to avoid the uncertainties, expense, and delays of an appeal.
In recent years, the courts themselves have become involved in facilitating mediation between parties after an appeal has been filed. Within the state appellate system, some districts are more proactive than others when it comes to promoting settlement. There are differing views as to how desirable it is to have appellate courts actively promote settlement through mediation. Some see it as a means of reducing workloads during a time of budgetary constraints. Others take the view that this interferes with the core role of the appellate courts, which is to decide cases and, thereby, add to and enrich the common law.
Oral argument
At some point after briefing, the parties are given the opportunity to have oral argument in front of the panel of three judges deciding the case. Oral argument is short and, ideally, involves not so much a lawyer delivering a monologue, as making an argument that is interrupted by pointed questions from the bench. Often, the questions dictate the rest of the argument. There is no right to oral argument in federal court. It is by invitation.
Oral argument is the most visible part of an appeal, but is typically the least important, especially in state court. Again, there is more about oral argument in the section of this Web site discussing appellate skills.
Decision
The court’s decision is issued in the form of a written opinion, which usually comes within 90 days of oral argument.
Beyond the decision
If the decision is unfavorable, there are other procedures one can attempt — a petition for rehearing to the court that has just decided the appeal or trying to take the case to the California Supreme Court.
A petition for rehearing is generally only appropriate if there is an obvious error on the face of the court’s decision, as opposed to a disagreement about the legal issues involved — for example, if the court clearly misstated an objective fact in the record or failed to address an issue. It is not appropriate to ask the court simply to think again about its legal conclusions. Very few petitions for rehearing result in a substantive modification of an opinion.
If you just disagree with the Court of Appeal’s decision, your next stop is generally the California Supreme Court. (This assumes that you are appealing from a state court decision. If it began as a federal case, the progression would be from the trial court to the US Court of Appeals and then to the US Supreme Court.) Click here to go to the portion of this Web site dealing with Supreme Court review.