Practical Tips For Trial Attorneys Handling Appeals

California Court of Appeal Justice Armen Tamzarian has noticed a trend: more trial attorneys are handling their own appeals. He says that these appeals can be easy to decide against trial counsel, if they simply rehash their prior disputes without recognizing the critical appellate decision points. Fortunately, trial counsel can improve their chances on appeal with the practical, non-technical tips in this eAlert. These tips, ranging from before trial through appellate oral argument, are based on recent conversations with six newer California Court of Appeal Justices.¹

Why These Tips?

The overarching theme of these tips is always be orienting. In other words, always consider how to favorably situate a particular point in its context. In fact, nearly every justice stressed the importance of techniques for orienting the court in briefing and argument. Orienting is particularly important on appeal for two main reasons.