If you lose your case and do not agree with the decision, you have the right to appeal. This means that you would have to present your case to another “higher” court with the authority to hear your case. California Appeal lawyers team has extensive experience representing clients at all appellate court levels, and offers comprehensive trial court experience.If you lost your case in District Court, you can appeal to Circuit Court. If your case was filed in Circuit Court (even if it was a District Court appeal), you can appeal to the Court of Appeals in Annapolis.
The Court of Appeals is the “higher” court in the state, which hears appeals filed with the Court of Special Appeals. (In rare cases, the Court of Appeals may choose to hear very important appeals directly, without first hearing the case in the Court of Special Appeals.) It is important to know that the Court of Appeal, unlike the process in the Court of Special Appeals, select the appeals you want to know (mainly that present new legal situations).
If you appeal a small claims case to the District Court, you will have to file your case again. Otherwise, in other situations, the Circuit Court or the Court of Special Appeals will make decisions based on the evidence you presented in your original case. With this type of appeal, you can only present legal arguments to justify why you think you should have won your case. You will not present evidence to the court again.
Because the appeals process is time consuming and costly, a party should always give itself time to reevaluate its case. This is especially true since the appeals process typically includes complex legal arguments, rather than the presentation of evidence. If you previously filed your own case, you should consider hiring an attorney for your appeal. If you file your appeal, you should expect to spend a significant amount of time on your case, as you will have to write the reasons for your appeal based on legal research.
How to file your appeal
From District Court to Circuit Court
To initiate an appeal to a District Court case, the losing party must file a Notice of Appeal, Form DC / CV 37, within thirty (30) days of the judgment. The party you want to appeal, known as the “appellant,” files this notice of appeal with the Circuit Court and also pays filing fees and a deposit for a case transcript, if necessary. As with any court filing, the party making the request must ensure that the other party is properly served. Appellant must pay filing fees to District Court and Circuit Court. Transcript preparation can be costly, see Circuit Court Appeal Cost Guide. However, It is important because the purpose of the transcript is to provide the Circuit Court with all the information about the case. An appellant may file a Request for Fee Waiver, Form CC-DC 8, but if the court does not grant the request, the appellant will have to pay for the transcript.
If the parties involved in the appeal can agree to a statement of the case, transmission of the entire record may not be necessary. Maryland Rule 7-109 strongly urges the parties to accept such a statement, which describes how the appeals motions arose and how the court decided on them. Read the rule: Maryland Rule 7-109
If there is no agreed statement, then the appellant will have to file a legal memorandum explaining their appeal. The other party to your appeal, known as the “appellee,” may also answer. Either party can request “oral argument” in Circuit Court. Maryland Rule 7-113 covers many of these details, including the time to file this document. Read the rule: Maryland Rule 7-113
It is important to remember that the successful party may attempt to enforce a judgment during the appeal process unless the appellant takes certain steps. Since a judgment is automatically stayed for only 10 days, the appellant generally submits a bond to support the request for stay of proceeding (or some other “security”) in District Court to continue the stay of enforcement of the judgment for the appeal. This process includes many details, most of which are described in Maryland Rule 8-423. The Court has the final authority to determine the bond to support the request for suspension of the proceeding. Read the rule: Maryland Rule 8-423
