Appeals
Nathan James of SEIFER, MURKEN, DESPINA, JAMES and TEICHMAN ALC a California . divorce and family law attorney certified by the State Bar of California as a specialist in family law, is dedicated to his California divorce and California family law clients. He is experienced after having practiced law for 38 years. He will vigorously fight for your rights at the trial level. If the trial court’s ruling is in error based on the present state of the law or if the ruling is an abuse of discretion, Nathan James will provide the legal experience necessary to appeal the court’s ruling.
California divorce and family law party litigants should realize that dissatisfaction with the outcome of a divorce or family law trial or hearing on a motion is not grounds for appeal. Unless you can prove fraud or mistake, settlement agreements that are reduced to a judgment or order cannot be appealed. Judges have very broad discretion in California divorce or family law cases.
In order to reverse a judge who made a ruling in a California divorce or family law case the appellant must show that the trial judge applied the wrong law or abused his or her discretion.
Abuse of discretion by a judge is difficult to prove.
If you are considering appealing a California divorce or family law judgment or order there are statutory time periods within which the notice of appeal must be filed and/or when certain written appellate briefs are due. Further, a person seeking to appeal a California divorce or family law judgment or order, needs to make sure that a “record” was made. This includes, but is not limited to, a California court reporter transcript of the hearing that was held, that all evidence has been preserved as well as other items that make up the record. A California divorce or family law litigant needs to make sure that all objections were properly made and that all arguments were properly advanced in the trial court. The California appellate courts do not allow new arguments that were not raised at the trial level. And one cannot appeal that which was not objected to at the trial court level. California divorce or family law litigants need to hire an experienced family law attorney to protect their appeal rights.