Tulsa Family Law Appeals Lawyer

Tulsa Family Law Appeals Attorney

From property division to child custody disputes, family law issues are never simple. If you are involved in a family law dispute that goes to court, and the court decision is not in your interest, you might feel like your world is falling apart. You should know that this does not have to be how this all ends. You have the legal right to appeal the decision if you think that the court did something wrong. A Tulsa family law appeals attorney can help you do so.

If you decide to file a family law appeal in Tulsa, you are in for a long, strict legal process. You should not attempt to handle this alone. Even a small mistake in your paperwork can ruin the process, and you would no longer have an attempt to appeal the decision.

An experienced family lawyer can make sure that you are carefully creating a detailed brief that highlights exactly what went wrong in the trial. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of a legal professional is the key to a strong appeal, and it also enhances your credibility. At Stange Law Firm, we can provide you with informed, individualized legal guidance for how to appeal a family law court decision.

What Is an Appeal?

When the court makes a decision in a case, the decision is final. You cannot refute the decision simply because you do not like it or because it makes your life harder. However, if you think that there is a legitimate reason for the court to re-evaluate the decision, you can file an appeal, which is a request for the court to review the decision. There are several reasons why you can file an appeal:

• The court misinterpreted the facts of the case or the evidence.
• The court did not have enough evidence to make its decision.
• The court misapplied the law to this case.
• The judge exhibited bias or unfair behavior.
• The trial did not follow formal legal standards.
• Your constitutional rights were violated during the trial.

You should consult with an appeals attorney before filing your appeal to ensure that you have grounds to make this decision. You and your lawyer can also work on crafting a strategy for how you will bring the court’s attention to the errors and make it clear that they were wrong in the way they went about this case.

Can You Appeal a Family Court Decision in Tulsa, OK?

Yes, if you have legitimate grounds for appealing the decision of a family court case in Tulsa, you can file an appeal. You have thirty days from the date of the ruling to file this appeal. Time is, therefore, limited, and you should get in touch with an appeals attorney as soon as possible so they can familiarize themselves with your case. Your lawyer can help you file all the necessary documentation that you must submit to the court and inform the court of how to find the relevant records.

How Do I File a Family Law Appeal in Tulsa, OK?

Your lawyer can help you better understand what to expect from the complicated, lengthy legal process of filing a family law appeal in Tulsa. Nevertheless, you can expect your appeal to go through the following stages:

• Filing a Petition of Error: If you know that you have the grounds for filing an appeal, and you do it within thirty days of the ruling, you can file a formal document called a petition of error with the court where your case was heard. You must include a lot of detail in this document, in which you summarize why you think you have the right to appeal and what happened during your family law case. Your family law appeals lawyer can demonstrate what you should put in your petition of error to make sure that it is strong and convincing.
• Filing Your Designation of Record: At the same time that you file your petition of error, your appeal attorney has to file a designation of record, in which they direct the court clerk to the transcripts that are relevant to your case. The appeal will not include evidence, so the court needs to recover the records from your trial.
• Preparing and Filing Your Brief: As the party who is seeking the appeal, you, the appellant, must file a brief. This document will cover all the relevant facts as to what went wrong in the trial. In other words, it is your chance to make your case for a different outcome. The importance of this cannot be overstated, and it is vital that you have a knowledgeable lawyer who can help you craft a strong, detailed brief. The other party will have forty days to reply with a reply brief, and you will have twenty days after that to submit a reply to theirs.
• Assignment to the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals: After the briefing process, your case will usually be assigned to the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. Here, a panel of three judges will review all the information and make a decision. In some cases, if your appeal was effective, you might find that the judges reverse or change the decision that was made in the original ruling.

If the panel of judges still does not rule in your favor, you do have the opportunity to ask the Oklahoma Supreme Court to review their opinion. Keep in mind that you must have solid grounds for this request, such as the fact that the judges misinterpreted the evidence.