Experienced Appellate Advocacy at Hamblett and Kerrigan
Often times litigants receive Orders from the court that they do not agree with. However, when there is legal precedent that is contrary to that Order, appellate law provides avenues for litigants after a final hearing or trial to review that decision. The New Hampshire Supreme Court is charged, in part, with reviewing the decisions of both the Superior Court and the District Courts within the state. In reviewing the lower court decisions, the Supreme Court has multiple standards to determine whether the lower court made a decision contrary to an existing statute or already established case law. For example, the Supreme Court will overturn a lower court decision if it finds the lower court erred or abused its discretion in making the Order.
Precedent is derived from cases that have already been decided by the Supreme Court in its previous orders. That law provides guidance both to the court as well as to litigants in order to provide consistency in future rulings. At times, the Supreme Court will overturn prior rulings and establish new precedent based on a variety of factors. For example, a unique set of facts may apply differently to a statute, or an amendment may have been made to statute could result in differing interpretations and precedent.
New Hampshire Supreme Court Rule 7 provides guidance to appellants as to how to file for an appeal. First, a Notice of Appeal is generally required to be filed within 30 days of a Final Order that is being appealed. The Notice must also detail the specific kind of appeal that the Order falls under. There are two categories of appeals: Mandatory and Discretionary. Mandatory appeals are those cases that the Supreme Court is required to hear and includes “trial court decisions on the merits.” Trial decisions on the merits are those cases that conducted final hearings or trials that presented evidence and testimony resolving all of the issues for the court. Discretionary appeals are those cases that require more detail in the Notice of Appeal and give the Supreme Court discretion to choose to hear the appeal or not. Discretionary appeals include decisions from cases that are not final orders resolving every issue in the case, as well as sentence modifications, post-conviction review proceedings, and a number of other cases.
The attorneys at Hamblett & Kerrigan are versed in the specific rules and requirements in order to preserve your appellate rights and arguments. For example, arguments that were not made to the lower court in a hearing or pleading cannot be appealed, as the Supreme Court will not make an Order on an issue the lower court never heard. Once an appeal is accepted, there are also lengthy rules governing how the moving parties’ brief must be filed, as well as the opposing party to the appeal (or Appellee’s) brief. The Brief is filed once the appeal has been accepted and references the facts presented to the trial court, as well as the governing law on how the moving party (or Appellant) believes the Court should have ruled.
Once all briefs and arguments have been presented to the Supreme Court, a decision is issued that either (1) reverses the trial court’s decision, (2) affirms the trial court’s decision, or (3) remands the case back to the trial court to be retried. Both moving and non-moving parties benefit from our appellate advocacy department as we have years of experience in research and arguing precedent, as well as the statutory interpretation behind certain rulings. Although it is a very high standard to have a case appealed, our team is skilled in providing honest advice both on the current trends of the Supreme Court, as well as an appeal’s potential for success.
