Appeals in Family Law North Carolina and South Carolina

Sometimes, the trial court’s order is not the final word in a domestic legal case and may be subject to review by appellate courts. The appellate rules and procedures are different from the rules and procedures in place at the trial court level, and navigating the process requires the knowledge and expertise that is gained from years of experience handling appellate cases.

After a domestic trial, you may be able to file a divorce or child custody appeal, which is a request for a higher court to undo the ruling of a lower court due to misrepresentation or legal error. If your appeal is granted, you will not have another trial or submit new evidence in favor of your case, but an appeals court judge will reexamine the evidence you previously submitted to the trial judge. From there, the appeals court can either dismiss your request after confirming the previous ruling or modify the judgment. In rare cases, the appeals judge can even order a new trial.

Our appellate attorney can review your order and consult with you to determine whether there may be grounds for an appeal and whether an appeal is likely to improve your situation. There are strict deadlines for undertaking an appeal, so it’s important to discuss your options with us as soon as possible.

Appellate courts typically only deal with final court orders. Temporary orders can sometimes be heard by appellate courts, but only with special permission. For instance, if an abusive father was given temporary custody of his child, a mother may pursue special permission to appeal this custody award in an appellate court. Most often, though, you can only appeal a child support ruling or another domestic decree after the final order is issued.

Divorce and child custody appeals are granted when there are legal grounds for objection to a court ruling. This means that you can’t appeal a final court decree simply because you don’t like it or you disagree with it. You can ask an appellate court to review your case again if the court made any of the following mistakes in the first trial:

• The court misunderstood or did not properly consider certain key facts
• The court improperly applied the law

If you believe you have legal grounds to appeal a court order, you need to file a Notice of Appeal within 30 days of the court issuing the decree. If the court mailed you the order, you have 35 days from the day it was sent to you. The same limits apply when appealing temporary court orders.

While it is true that any legal issue requires careful attention and immediate action, this is especially true regarding appeals in family law in NC and SC. The longer you wait to seek an appeal of the court’s ruling, the more likely you are to miss a critical deadline, which could limit or completely inhibit your ability to appeal an order.