Appeal
This term comes from the medieval French word "apel," meaning to call out or accuse. In legal and/or governmental matters, it refers to a formal process by which an official decision may be challenged. This can mean the review of an agency decision by a higher authority within that agency, but more often, it involves bringing a case that has been decided before a higher court with the objective of having the lower court's decision reversed, or overturned.
Courts of Appeal, or appellate courts, hear both criminal and civil cases. Unlike criminal cases however, either the plaintiff or the defendant in civil cases may appeal a judgment (in criminal cases, double jeopardy prevents the prosecution from seeking an appeal once a defendant is found not guilty of a crime). The process begins when one of the parties files a notice of appeal with the appropriate court, which is always one at the next higher level.
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Regardless of whether the party is the plaintiff or the defendant, whoever files the appeal is known as the appellant or petitioner, while the other party is called the appellee or respondent. In either case, one or occasionally both parties believe the decision made by the lower court - generally the nature or amount of a monetary award - was in error because of an alleged misapplication of the law by the judge in question.
Other grounds for appeal include court misconduct, or the reasonable belief that the judgment was based on a faulty or unreasonable interpretation of available evidence.
Several things can happen in the course of an appeal. The appellate court may affirm the judgment of the lower court, in which case the appellant may appeal the case to the next higher court. An appellate court may also find that errors were made in some aspects of the case, and send the case back to the original jurisdiction, or it may reverse the entire judgment or any part of it.
It is important to understand that during the appeals process, the higher court(s) will review only that evidence originally presented in the lower court; neither party may introduce new evidence.