Family Court

Family court is the court that gathers to decide issues and create orders for family law.  Family court deals with family issues such as custody of children, abused or neglected children, adoption, paternity, guardianship, and child support.  For example, if you have a divorce with your spouse of 20 years and are fighting over the custody of your children, you would likely go to family court to settle the issue.  There are also family court lawyers that specialize in this type of law.

Unfortunately, things do not always go as planned.  You may have experienced unfairness or believe that certain facts or laws were used in the wrong way.  When you believe this to be true, no matter what court you are in, you should seek an appeals court.  Often called a Court of Appeals, appeals court is a court with the authority to review errors in a case.  They also often take cases from courts with less jurisdiction, to re-evaluate the legal procedures, facts, or evidence of a case.

So when would you turn to an appeals court when you are in family court?  In most courts, you are allowed one appeal as a right.  If the appeals court fails to find grounds for an appeal, that is, a legitimate reason for an appeal, the case will be dropped and you will lose a lot of money.  So when and how can you appeal in family court?  Here are some steps and tips to follow:

1.  Ensure that you are making the right decision to appeal-

Are you sure that the risk/reward is worth it?  Appeals court can be expensive, and there is no guarantee that you will get an appeal, let alone a judgment that you are satisfied with.  Consult with a lawyer for advice.

2.  Find a lawyer to work your appeals court case-

The lawyer that represented you in family court is required to start the appellate case for you.  If you are found to qualify for “poor person relief,” the court may assign you a free lawyer.

3.  Fill out your notice of appeal and serve the respondent-

Each case in the appeals court first requires a notice of appeal from you.  You will need 2 copies of this notice to present to the family court that heard your case.

3.  When you get to the appeals court, state your case and ground for appeal

Your lawyer will do the work here, obviously.  You will receive one of the following decisions from the appeals court: reverse, remand, affirm, and/or modify.  Reverse is when the appeals court decides that the family court was wrong.  Remand is when the appeals court orders the family court to rehear the case.  Affirm is when they deem the case ruled correctly.  Modify is when the appeals court changes only a part of the decision.

Tips:

-Ensure that you make your court date.  You will have to pass more red tape for the case to be reopened.
-Search for free lawyer consultation before you decide to appeal in family court.

Civil Court Cases

Civil court law actually pertains to the same meaning as everyday law. Everyday laws are something that should be followed on a regular basis by the common people. Even though we are well aware of this fact we still face challenges of doing so or come across others who have trouble doing so which lead us to have to take legal action. Civil court cases are usually much less severe than criminal cases. There are many different types of civil court cases in the court system.
The following are just a few of the mainly common civil court cases which we see frequently: probate civil court cases, small claims civil court cases, landlord or tenant civil court cases, juvenile civil court cases, family civil court cases, and general civil court cases. Each of these cases differs from criminal law in that criminal law usually has a judge simply decide whether he/she is guilty or not. With civil cases however things can be more complicated depending on the type of case it is. General cases normally refer to instances where someone has been harmed or injured, contract disputes, or damage to somebody’s property or goods. The court system is used to determine who gets to claim money to replace something that could possibly even be irreplaceable. Now when it comes to family cases the court system would be used in a similar way to determine who gets what for something such as a divorce settlement or even child custody and child support cases. For juvenile cases the court system is used to settle issues pertaining to child abuse/neglect.

Landlord and tenant civil court cases obviously pertain to issues with leasing or renting property and the court system is used to determine whether or not the tenant should even be thrown off of the property. Small claims civil cases usually are arguments over not that great a sum of money and don’t even require lawyers to represent themselves. The court system is used in these cases to determine if they actually deserve the amount of money they are claiming. Probate civil cases deal with mainly personal issues such as trusts/wills, adoption, guardian issues, name changing rights, and elderly abuse. The court system is used here to regulate the rights to whoever deserves the rightful ownership of them. The court system of the United States is comprised of two separate structures. These two separate structures would be the federal court system and the state court system.

The federal court system is in actuality the least complicated even though it may not seem so. The reason why state court systems are more complicated is because every state has different laws. Each judge of each separate court in every state handles situations all in their own comfort zone. Court systems are crucial in determining so many factors when it comes to abiding by simple everyday laws that we would be lost without them.