Preserving Appellate Rights at Trial and in Post-trial Proceedings

As a trial lawyer, it’s important not to unintentionally give up your client’s right to appeal. In Florida courts, even experienced lawyers make mistakes that can waive these rights. For example, during jury selection, if you want to appeal a decision not to dismiss a juror, you have to use up all your challenges, ask for more, and then point out which juror you would have dismissed. Even if you do all this, you can still waive the right to appeal if you accept the jury without bringing up the issue again. Also, if the judge excludes evidence before trial, you have to make sure to object again when the evidence is actually introduced at trial in order to preserve your right to appeal. It’s important to always make an offer of proof, even if it seems unnecessary. If you want a higher court to review a decision about evidence in a trial, you have to object to the evidence when it’s presented and explain exactly why you think it shouldn’t be allowed. If the judge doesn’t make a clear decision about your objection, you need to ask for one so it can be reviewed later. And if the judge doesn’t let certain evidence be used, you have to explain to the higher court what that evidence would have been and why it should have been allowed. Without following these rules, the higher court won’t consider your complaint about the evidence. In order to preserve any objections to arguments made by attorneys during a trial, it’s important to immediately object and request a mistrial before the jury is dismissed. If you don’t do this, you may not be able to challenge the argument on appeal. It’s also important to make sure that any objections to the jury instructions are raised during the trial, so that they can be ruled upon by the judge. Additionally, if there are any issues with the jury or the verdict, they need to be raised as soon as they arise. After the trial, if you want to file a motion to challenge the verdict, it needs to be done within a certain time frame. If any of these steps are not followed, it may be difficult to challenge the trial outcome later on. Gerald W. Pierce is a lawyer who is really good at handling appeals in court. He has helped with a lot of cases in Florida. This article is from the Trial Lawyers Section and the Florida Bar. It talks about the importance of duty and service to the public in the legal profession.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/preserving-appellate-rights-at-trial-and-in-post-trial-proceedings/