Ideally the appeal process can take as little as 120 days, but that is a generally an unrealistic expectation of the time process because there may be many intervening factors, such as the appellate court’s determination that there should be oral argument before the court.
Then, the opinion-writing process itself may be delayed. The actual appellate process from start to finish can be estimated as between 8 to 12 months.
The complexity of the appeal is usually the deciding factor in terms of the length of time of the actual process.
Read about the 4 different types of appeals in Florida family law.
About Florida Appeals
Appeals generally are a request that one makes to a higher court to review what the lower court did in the first place.
Trial courts are where the court tries the facts, but an appellate court is where the higher court “tries the trial court”. In other words, the focus of an appeal is on what the trial court did.
- Was it proper?
- Did they have the correct law to apply?
- Did they determine the facts properly?
- Did they apply properly the correct law to the facts?
- Did the facts of the case justify the result reached?
So, the correct focus of the trial court is to determine if the trial court correctly ruled. In order to do this, the appellate court must know what the trial court did and the facts that were presented to the trial court.
This requires that the appellate court be made aware of the situation.
The appellate court considers the record/transcript of what the trial court heard, and it is up to the appealing party, known as “the Appellant”, to supply the record to the appellate court.
There are five District Courts of Appeal in Florida, located respectively in Tallahassee, Lakeland, Miami, West Palm Beach and Daytona Beach. As a general rule, decisions of the district courts of appeal represent the final appellate review of litigated cases.
First District Court of Appeal – (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th and 14th Circuits)
Second District Court of Appeal – (6th, 10th, 12th, 13th and 20th Circuits)
Third District Court of Appeal – (11th and 16th Circuits)
Fourth District Court of Appeal – (15th, 17th and 19th Circuits)
Fifth District Court of Appeal – (5th, 7th, 9th and 18th Circuits) – source FLcourts.org
The Florida Appeals Process
Once the record has been supplied to the appellate court, the parties have an opportunity to explain to the appellate court what the record means in a process known as “Briefing”.
The Appellant is the first to explain the arguments in a brief known as the “Initial Brief”.
Generally, seventy (70) days after the Notice of Appeal is filed will be the deadline for the Initial Brief, although sometimes shorter or longer periods are appropriate as circumstances occur.
Thirty (30) days after the Initial Brief is filed, the other party, “the Appellee”, has an opportunity to make counter-arguments in an “Answer Brief”, and then after the Answer Brief is filed, the Appellant has the opportunity to make additional arguments in an “Reply Brief”.
Generally, that is the entirety of the briefing period. After the briefing period is concluded, the appellate court will take the matter under advisement, and eventually the court will reach a decision.
The entire appeal process from beginning to end could take anywhere from 8 to 12 months – depending on the unique circumstances in the case.
If you have questions regarding appealing your family law judgment, contact Men’s Rights Law Firm today for a consultation at 239-829-0166.