It can be extremely disappointing to have a judge rule against you in a trial court. If the verdict isn’t in your favor, you’ve got two options:
- Accept the judge’s decision and move on
- File an appeal because you believe an error has been made
Appeal lawyers in Florida can appeal the ruling you received from a trial court, and at the appellate level they can convince the appellate judges that mistakes were made during the trial. However, filing an appeal doesn’t automatically mean that enforcement of the trial court’s decision is paused until a decision is made in the appellate court.
If you’re considering filing an appeal in Tampa, continue reading to learn more about how appeals work and when it’s the right time to file an appeal.
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Can You File a Notice of Appeal While Post-Trial Motions Are Pending?
Sometimes, a litigant will jump the gun and file a notice of appeal when post-trial motions are not complete. Often, this is done because the litigant is impatient; they want to get the appeal process moving as soon as possible.
So what happens if a litigant does this in Florida?
It depends. Generally, a lower court retains the right to rule on certain post-trial motions, even after a notice of appeal is filed. However, this is not true for all motions. Therefore, you’ll need to do careful research and pay attention to the details when filing an appeal.
This is why appellees bring on experienced post-conviction lawyers in Tampa, Florida when they’re looking to file a successful appeal. When you have the right appellate attorney working on your case, they can advise you on which actions to take, and they’ll do everything in their power to ensure your appeal is a successful one.
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Will Filing an Appeal Stay the Trial Court’s Judgement?
No. Filing an appeal does not override the trial court’s judgment. The judgment remains enforceable until it is overturned by an appellate court. Similarly, filing a notice of appeal will not automatically stay the enforcement order. In simple terms, you must comply with the trial court’s judgment, even when the appeal is pending.
While this is the most common procedure, certain judgments are automatically stayed by the operation of law when a notice of appeal is filed. If the enforcement is not automatically stayed, your appeals attorney in Tampa can ask the trial court to stay enforcement. The trial court is likely to require that the appellant post a bond in such a case. If the trial court doesn’t stay the order, the appeals court can stay the order of enforcement.
The purpose of the stay is to protect the status quo in the short term. This way, the appellate court can go over the appeal and grant meaningful relief to the appellee (if such is justified).
This process of filing a notice of appeal and getting a stay order on the enforcement of the trial court’s judgment can be complicated to handle on your own. This is why you should hire experienced Tampa appeals lawyers to guide you through the process. Your appellate attorney will know whether challenging the trial court’s decision is appropriate or not, and they’ll seek a stay of enforcement if they deem this is warranted.
