Why you might need an appellant lawyer

Legal dramas and legal reality television is so prevalent that it shapes our collective opinion of the court system.

These shows usually portray judges as serious figures who have spent a lifetime of scholarly study, take their jobs very seriously, and they aside their personal biases to just focus on the law and be treat the parties in a dispute even handedly. This is also how the court system portrays itself. It is designed to get citizens to support the judiciary, and when we see a shocking verdict announced on the news, to get us to feel that the decision must have been reasoned and just, because you know, that is what the judiciary does.

However, when ordinary citizens become litigants in the court system, often one or both sides become disillusioned pretty quickly. They often don't feel that they got a fair shake when the case goes against them. As a party to a case in the legal system, it is easy to feel that the system is biased or rigged, and that everyone in the system kind of knows it and just goes along with it. Lets talk about reasons people in the legal system might feel that way, from the benign to the malicious.

#1 - Laws are written poorly and judges have to figure out what they mean

Laws are written by the state legislature, and anyone can be elected to serve. The folks we elect are usually well meaning, but few will have any experience or even appreciation for how what they write will be used by courts, so many laws are simply poorly worded. They might have contradictions, or inconsistencies, and judges are tasked with making sense of them. Sometimes with poor results themselves.

We recently filed an appeal over RCW 6.27.200. The law gives a party certain rights at any time within seven days following service on, or mailing to. Taken at face value, this means that the receiving party could have 7 days to act if they are personally served a document, or they could have zero days to act if it was mailed before a long holiday weekend from a remote post office. Nearly all laws involving personal service or via the mail add three days to the mailed option, or start the timer after the mail was received, but not this specific wording.

That upon motion by the garnishee at any time within seven days following service on, or mailing to, the garnishee of a copy of the first writ of execution or writ of garnishment under such judgment

Poorly worded, the trial court judge followed the exact letter of the law, our client lost, and it goes to the appeals court to resolve where it will probably go in our client's favor because due process is an important element in our society and things done without proper notice are generally unconstitutional.

No matter how this appeal turns out, one party is going to feel like the law didn't work for them and it goes back to a legislative failure.

#2 - Judges are busy and sometimes just make silly mistakes

There is a saying to never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, and there is a lot of merit to this, not that you may feel better about it. Judges are busy and it is easy for them to not really have a firm grasp of the law or facts before they issue a ruling. These can sometimes be fixed with a motion to reconsider, but often judges don't want to be seen as mistake-makers or wafflers, so often they are reluctant to fix their mistakes which is yet another human issue, but the underlying "mistake" might not have been malicious.

#3 - A lot of law and interpretation of law is based on public policy

Judges almost always interpret the law based on their views on public policy. For example in our RCW 6.27.200 appeal, the judge myopically [in our view] followed the letter of the law, but we believe the appeals court will interpret the law based on the public policy of due process and overrule the trial court judge.

If everyone viewed public policy the same, we would not have multiple political parties and constant political fighting. Judges don't like the populace to see them as political, and rarely see themselves as political, but they do need to view the law through a public policy lens and that is inherently political.

And your trial court judge might not have the same politics as the appellant court judges. Typically the appeals court judges do spend quite a bit of time harmonizing the laws with public policy, much more than the trial court concerns itself. And of course when there is a public policy mismatch between the trial court judge and the appeals court, usually the trial court judge loses.

#4 - Open acting on one's bias is going mainstream

I think pretty much everyone agrees that our entire system is getting not only getting more political, but those in power are getting more and more comfortable about openly flexing their power against those they disagree with. Public servants used to be very careful to give the impression [some say illusion] of serving the entire public, while now many are openly confrontational against their detractors and openly favor their supporters, and are getting rewarded for it, or at least not being penalized for it. And anymore it isn't enough any more to get a win, our public servants want to be seen as vanquishing their foes using dirty tricks so everyone understand their power.

I think some in the judiciary are taking note of what started in the executive and legislative branches, trying it for themselves, and finding out they can often openly show their biases in their own court rooms and either nothing bad happens, or they gain supporters that reward them. Which encourages them to keep going, and be more open about it.

This sort of judge usually reserves openly showing their bias against parties who don't appear to have deep pockets and will be unable to publicize bad rulings or appeal them, and tend to act more judiciously with parties who can. But like a lot of public servants, I see many judges openly making oppressive rulings for what really appears to be showing those they rule over that they can and they can make it stick so you better watch your step.

What does this mean for you?

There is an increased need to appeal bad rulings. After what I just said, you might question why the appeals court would help you when the trial court didn't, but all is not lost in our judicial system. Better[less appealed] judges tend to be promoted to the appeals court. The appeals court decisions are made up of 3 judge panels, so individual biases are averaged out more, and appeals court judges usually focus more on getting the law correct.

One thing I appreciate in the ninth circuit court of appeals is they publish all oral arguments on their YouTube channel. I have watched many of those videos and found many of the justices to be well reasoned and full of common sense. I think they have to be because the sunlight of actions being televised often is the best disinfectant. Bureaucratic tyrants usually like operating behind closed doors. I hope more court rooms will be televised, and that the judges who a) refuse to engage in oral arguments b) that are uploaded to YouTube will be compelled to do so.

We keep the price of filing an appeal manageable for most people

We charge flat fees for most of our practice and appellant fees are no different. And our fees are very reasonable. We are not going to ask you to pay us $4,500 to deal with a $5,000 dispute.

Do you have a question or a telemarketing, debt collection, bankruptcy, contract, consumer protection, or appellant case that would make a great blog article? We might even review your pro-se complaint or motion in a blog post. Email peter@nwdebtresolution.com and/or nathen@nwdebtresolution.com and we may answer it for everyone!

The thoughts, opinions and musings of this blog are those of Peter Schneider, a consumer advocate and Washington State plaintiff's TCPA attorney at Northwest Debt Resolution, LLC. They are just that, his thoughts, opinions and musings and should be treated as such. They are not legal advice. If you are looking to file a lawsuit for TCPA violations and unwanted calls please contact me for a consultation.

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