The Role of the Appellate Specialist

Florida Bar Board Certified Appellate Lawyer Jennifer S. Carroll

Legal Resolution

Discovery and trials are very costly. Juries are unpredictable. If there is a way to dispose of a case on purely legal grounds, then those avenues should be pursued. One of the objectives of the appellate specialist at the trial level is to determine the legal grounds upon which a case can be conclusively resolved. The most efficient way to resolve a case is to obtain a judgment as a matter of law which will be upheld on appeal.

Preparation of appellate strategies during trial

A successful verdict is, however, subject to reversal on appeal if harmful error occurred either in the pretrial or trial proceedings. The appellate specialist works with trial counsel to guard against such errors occurring at the trial level. If the verdict was unfavorable, the appellate specialist helps ensure that proper objections were made in the trial court, and that harmful errors that led to an improper verdict were preserved for appellate review.

Mastery of complex appellate procedure

The board certified appellate specialist is a master of the complex appellate rules of procedure, and knows when to appeal during the course of pretrial and trial proceedings, as well as what to appeal. The appellate specialist is familiar with the types of issues and arguments that will be the most persuasive on appeal and those that will not be persuasive. Download and read the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure.

See “Appellate Specialization and the Art of Appellate Advocacy,” [June 2000 Florida Bar Journal], cited in the “Publications” section of this website.

Consult with a Florida Board Certified Appellate Lawyer

For an initial consultation with a Florida board certified appellate specialist, contact the Law Offices of Jennifer S. Carroll, P.A.