Hello, I'm Liisa Speaker, an appellate attorney at the Speaker Law Firm.
A lot of people who are appealing a trial court decision want to know what happens after the Court of Appeals decides their case. Does it go back to the same trial judge that made the mistakes in the first place? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
It is exceedingly rare for a case to be sent back to a different judge. We have seen this occur in very few situations, and only in extreme cases, will the Court of Appeals send it back to a different judge. I would say that no more than one out of a thousand will go back to a different judge. And that is not an exaggeration.
If the case does go back to a different judge, it is usually because a judge has retired, and another judge has been assigned to the case. In some counties, for example, the counties realign the dockets, and so the judge assigned to a new docket, they may no longer be on the bench for that particular type of case that you had before it. Such as when a family law judge is moved to the regular circuit court docket.
But you really should not hold out hope that a different judge will be on the case. You must be prepared to deal with the same judge after you went on appeal. The good news is that the appeal will be decided by a panel of three judges. And those judges come from all over the state, and typically are not from the same county where the trial court judge sits.
And the Court of Appeals judges are basically the boss of the trial courts, because they can decide whether to overturn the trial court's decision. Many judges do take it to heart when a higher court, like the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court tell them they did something wrong.
Thank you for visiting the Speaker Law Firm.
www.speakerlaw.com/