Federal Appeals Attorney in Kendall
Experienced federal criminal attorney with the will to win
The federal criminal court process does not always end the moment a trial court delivers a guilty verdict. For defendants who are looking for justice after being convicted in federal court, a direct appeal may be the right path to receiving a better outcome in your case. The federal appeals process is lengthy and generally requires knowledge of criminal procedure, case law, and other factors that can impact a criminal defendant’s case. A very small percentage of federal appeals cases are decided in favor of the defendant, who is also known as the appellant. To improve the likelihood of winning your federal appeal, we recommend retaining an experienced Kendall FL federal defense attorney who has a proven track record of success. Joffe Law has more than 35 years of experience representing people who have been convicted of a crime in federal appellate court.
Understanding the federal court system
The federal court system is made up of three tiers: federal district courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal district courts are trials courts. When a convicted defendant wants to appeal a decision a federal trial court made, the defendant may file an appeal with the corresponding circuit court. The party who does not win its case at the circuit court level may file a writ to request permission to have their case reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Currently, there are 13 circuits in the United States. Most circuits are made up of a few states or U.S. territories and correspond to a geographical region. Each circuit has one designated federal circuit courthouse at which circuit court judges review cases from all of the states within the circuit. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are the states that make up the 11th Circuit. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is located in Atlanta. When people who have been convicted of a federal offense in Kendall FL want to file an appeal, they must file their appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trial courts vs. circuit courts
We see trial courts in television shows and movies, read about them in books, and hear about real trials in the news. Therefore, most people have a general idea of how a criminal trial proceeds. The defense and prosecution make opening and closing arguments. They introduce evidence and call witnesses. Each side can interview the other’s witnesses. In jury trials, the jury hears the evidence and goes to deliberate at the end of closing arguments. After deliberating and voting on a verdict, the jury announces the case decision.
Appellate courts work entirely differently. Because appellate courts do not have the presence of cameras or even the attorneys in most cases or the defendant at all, most people are unfamiliar with the appellate court procedure. Nevertheless, understanding the procedure is critical to a discussion about the federal appeals process.
Circuit courts differ from trial courts in appearance and in function. Where a trial court has one judge who presides over the proceedings, appellate courts have a panel of three judges and no jury. The three-judge panel votes and publishes a collective decision after reviewing the case. Defendants do not make an appearance before the appellate court. The attorneys also generally never appear before the appellate court except when the judges request open arguments to resolve questions the judges have about the case. Still, circuit courts do not request open arguments in most cases. Therefore, the majority of decisions on federal appeals are based on the trial court transcript and the arguments each attorney makes in its appellate brief. When choosing a Kendall FL defense attorney to handle your federal appeal, it is important that you hire an attorney who has strong persuasive writing skills.
Unlike trial courts, which are designed to find the facts in a case and determine what happened, appellate courts are limited to reviewing the case to determine whether the trial court made an error. When a case is on appeal, the two sides do not submit evidence or call witnesses. However, if the defense has found new evidence, the trial court may determine that the evidence is important to the case and send the case back to the trial court to allow the new evidence to be introduced. When filing a federal appeal, your attorney must argue that the trial court made a legal error that materially affected the outcome of your case.
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The federal appeals process
The first step in the federal appeals process is to file a Notice of Appeal. Legal errors may occur at any point from the investigative process to the trial court decision. However, defendants must wait to see if the error results in a guilty verdict before filing a federal appeal. Therefore, the right to file a federal criminal appeal automatically begins the moment the trial court convicts the defendant. From the date of conviction, defendants have 14 days to file a Notice of Appeal. Failure to do so within 14 days may forfeit the defendant’s right to file a direct appeal. If the 14-day window has lapsed, we may be able to leverage other post-conviction relief strategies in your case.
When the circuit court receives the defendant’s Notice of Appeal, the trial court will notify the attorneys of the deadline by which each side must submit its appellate brief. The defense is also responsible for obtaining the transcriptions of the trial court proceedings to provide the circuit court with an official record for the court’s review. Both the defense and the prosecution determine which parts of the trial transcripts will become the official record for the federal appeals case.
The circuit court reviews the appellate briefs and the trial transcripts. If the appellate judges have questions, they will schedule oral arguments, at which time the attorney from each side will make a solo appearance before the appellate court to present his or her side of the case. During the presentation, the appellate court judge panel may interrupt and ask questions Q&A-style. At the end of the attorney’s allotted time for speaking, the attorney may return home and await the court’s decision. From the initial filing of the Notice of Appeal to the date upon which the circuit court issues a decision, the federal appeals process can take several months or more than one year. Along with publishing a decision, each judge on the panel may also write an opinion to explain how he or she arrived at his or her vote in the decision. Appellate court opinions are often important to the legal community even if the judge who writes the opinion voted against the collective decision. Other attorneys may later cite the judges’ opinions as arguments that are of legal authority in future criminal cases.
Possible outcomes of a federal appellate case
Federal appellate courts do not directly determine whether the defendant was guilty or not guilty. Instead, federal circuit courts decide whether they will affirm, reverse, or remand a decision that was made by the trial court. In appellate cases that reach the Supreme Court, the justices will issue a collection decision on whether they will affirm, reverse, or remand the circuit court’s decision.
When a federal circuit court affirms the trial court’s decision, the appellate court is announcing that it agrees with the decision the trial court made and will not overturn the decision. If the circuit court agrees with the assertion that the trial court made a legal error that negatively affected the defendant’s case outcome, the circuit court will vote to reverse the trial court’s decision. Depending on the facts of a case, a reversal may result in a new trial, or the defendant may be entirely free to go. When the circuit court orders a new case, the circuit court will announce that it has reversed the trial court’s decision and remanded the case back to the trial court for a new trial. When an appellate court remands a case back to the previous court, the appellate court will include instructions for the previous court on how to fix the error that led to the reversal.
Grounds for filing a federal appeal
Successful federal appeals are typically based on one or more legal errors that negatively affected the defendant’s case. A successful federal defense attorney will submit an appellate brief to the court that focuses on the strongest appealable issues in the defendant’s case. Some common errors defense attorneys use as the basis for a compelling federal appellate brief include:
- investigative problems
- evidentiary problems
- jury-related problems
INVESTIGATIVE PROBLEMS IN FLORIDA FEDERAL APPEALS CASES
Law enforcement agencies are required to follow certain procedures when investigating a suspected criminal matter. Failure to follow the rules may damage the case the federal government may want to pursue against a suspected criminal. Some examples of legal violations that arise during criminal investigations include:
- illegal searches
- illegal seizure of evidence
- failure to properly preserve evidence
- coerced confession
- entrapment
- other constitutional rights violations
Many people are uninformed of their full rights when it comes to the criminal court system. Prosecutors are generally not permitted to introduce evidence that was obtained through illegal means into the record to be used against the defendant at trial. Unfortunately, defense attorneys and courts make mistakes. A defense attorney may fail to challenge the evidence, or the court may rule against the defendant if his or her attorney does raise a timely objection.
Retaining an experienced attorney from the moment you realize you may be a person of interest in a criminal matter will substantially reduce the likelihood of your rights being violated. If you did not retain legal counsel early on and illegally obtained evidence was used to convict you, we recommend retaining a reputable, experienced defense lawyer to challenge the issue on appeal. Your attorney can also appeal the court’s decision if the court erred by allowing illegal evidence to be admitted despite your attorney’s objection during the trial.
EVIDENTIARY PROBLEMS THAT ARE GROUNDS FOR A FEDERAL APPEAL
There are certain types of witness statements trail courts may not allow to be used against a defendant. If a witness makes a statement that is not a first-hand account, the statement may be excluded from the record on the grounds of the information being hearsay. If a witness provides information of which he or she is not sure, the evidence is inadmissible because the statement is speculative. Evidence that is unrelated to the subject matter of the case may be stricken or disallowed on the grounds of irrelevancy. Your Kendall FL federal defense attorney will review the evidence in your case and, if necessary, challenge the admissibility of the evidence in your appellate brief.
PROBLEMS WITH THE JURY
Most members do not have an extensive background in law. To bridge the gap and help juries apply the applicable laws in deciding a case, judges provide instructions to the jury. Any error that affects the jury directly or the instructions a judge provides for the jury can negatively affect the defendant’s case. Some common jury errors include:
- confusing instructions
- vague instructions
- overly wordy instructions
- biased jury
- jury selection errors
- jury tampering
The average person may not readily notice when a jury error occurs. If you have been convicted for a federal crime in Kendall FL, you need a knowledgeable Florida defense attorney. Your attorney will examine the details of your case to determine whether a jury-related issue may have resulted in you being convicted in federal court.
Kendall Florida defense attorney for federal appeals
The federal appeals process requires patience and, in most cases, highly technical knowledge of the law and the federal court system. David Joffe is a seasoned, reputable federal appeals defense attorney in South Florida. We represent defendants in a variety of different types of federal cases including white collar offenses, drug crimes, sex offenses, and child pornography cases.
Contact Joffe Law to learn more about our federal legal defense services. A member of our team will provide a case evaluation and review the details of your case.