A family court decision can be appealed on one of two grounds: error of law or abuse of discretion. Be careful, because procedural errors could result in the dismissal of your appeal. An understanding of the California family court appeals process can help you avoid mistakes that could undermine or even defeat your claim. 

Error of Law

For an error of law claim to apply, you must allege one of two possibilities:

  • The judge applied the wrong law to the case; or 

  • The judge used the right law but misapplied it.

This is not as difficult as it may sound. You might think that a judge, trained in the law, would seldom commit an error of law. The wild card in the deck, however, is the fact that different judges understand the law differently. Likewise, since the facts of each individual case are different, the application of the law to the facts varies from case to case.

Abuse of Discretion

Any judge is granted a certain amount of discretion by higher courts. In other words, higher courts like to give lower courts the benefit of the doubt. In an abuse of discretion claim, you are arguing that the judge made such poor use of his discretion that there is little, if any, doubt to give him the benefit of. An abuse of discretion claim is typically more effective on highly subjective issues such as how much visitation time one parent is granted. 

Preparing an Appeal

To appeal a family court decision, you need to complete a Notice of Appeal and file it with the local Court of Appeal along with a filing fee of several hundred dollars. You will need three copies of your filing documents: one for the court, one for you, and one for the other side. You will also have to have the documents served on the opposing party according to strict legal rules.

Filing Deadline and Fee Waivers

You must file your appeal within 60 days after you are served with a notice that judgment in the case has been entered or 180 days after the entry of the judgment. You can be granted a fee waiver under certain circumstances. But if you are not granted one, if you don’t include the fee, or if your check bounces, the court will give you 15 days to either obtain a fee waiver or pay the fee. Failure to pay the fee without a fee waiver could result in the dismissal of your appeal.

You Have to Get This One Right the First Time

If you are considering whether to appeal the decision of a family court, telephone CKB Vienna today or contact us online to schedule a consultation so that we can listen to your story and answer your questions. We don’t need to tell you how high the stakes are, but we would be remiss if we didn’t emphasize the importance of prompt action.

We serve clients in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Riverside County.

If you have decided whether to appeal the decision of the family court, reach out to us today. Learn on how we can assist you.