Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: appeals

Your question is somewhat complex and probably cannot be simply answered on this bulletin board. However, generally a case can be appealled once a final judgment has been entered in the court in which it is pending. Of course, filing an appeal is not synonymous with winning an appeal. In order to win an appeal, the trial court must have made some error that affected the outcome of the case (for example, refusing to allow certain probative testimony to be heard which if heard would have changed the outcome of the trial). In order to appeal a case to the United States Supreme Court, you must have appealled to all other intermediate appellate courts and lost, and you must file a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. If your case involves an important question of federal or state law, the Supreme Court may agree to hear the case.

Re: appeals

California Rules of Court 1, 2 and 3 cover when an appeal from a final judgment or appealable order of a superior court (unlimited jurisdiction) may be made. Rules 2(a)(1), (2) and (3) cover the specific time limits depending upon how the judgment is entered and notice given.

Code of Civil Procedure section 904.1 lists the orders which are directly appealable.

A small claims appeal is made to the superior court. A superior court, limited jurisdiction matter is appealed to the appellate division of the superior court.

The United States Supreme Court gets most of its cases on "certiorari," Latin for "it shall be certified." A litigate who has lost in a lower court may petition the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court sends to the lower court asking for a certified copy of the proceedings below to be sent on up.

The U.S. Supreme Court only grants certiorari to a tiny fraction of the litigante who petition for it. Cases are selected on the basis of need for Supureme Court rulings on an unsettled matter of law.

The entire subject of appealability is rather complex and law students probably spend several weeks of classes studying what can be appealed and when, and how, when, where and indeed whether, to initiate an appeal.