Seattle Appeals Lawyer
In Washington State there are three tiers to the court system: the trial court, the court of appeals, and the state Supreme Court. After a trial court enters an adverse judgment in a case, Seattle appeals attorneys are often called upon to scrutinize the trial record in search of the basis for appeal. A Seattle appeals attorney doesn't do do-overs. Instead, unlike trial attorneys, a Seattle appeals lawyer must find some error in a trial proceeding and bring that to the attention of the court of appeals for review. The case is not reargued from scratch on appeal. Instead, Seattle appeals lawyers argue that because an error was made at trial, the court should either overturn that judgment, or rule on the error and order a retrial in light of that ruling.

The kinds of error that may be decided on appeal are too broad and various to discuss here. However, they may be summarized as mistakes of law and mistakes of fact. Under an assignment of a mistake of law, a Seattle appeals attorney can argue that the trial judge misapplied or misinterpreted the law in some way. For example, if at trial the court found that the petitioner grandparents were entitled to mandatory visitation with their grandchild under Washington’s grandparent visitation statute, a Seattle appeals lawyer might argue that the trial court erred because that statute was unconstitutionally applied in this case. The constitutional issue at stake in that real case was whether the legislature could make a law that required parents to give grandparents visitation with their children when those parents are not unfit. Seattle appeals attorneys successfully argue just this kind of thing all the time.

When Seattle appeals lawyers argue that a mistake of fact occurred at trial, they usually argue that not enough evidence was presented for the fact finder (jury or judge) to determine that those facts occurred. Part of a judge’s job is to evaluate evidence and decide whether the total record presented is sufficient to send an issue to the jury for a determination as to whether facts occurred. When the trial record is light on the required evidence on a particular factual issue, Seattle appeals attorneys may have an argument.

Seattle appeals attorneys might find in your case that a problem with evidence or a problem with legal application may have occurred in your trial. Contact the Seattle appeals attorneys at McKinley Irvin today for questions about Seattle appeals cases.

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