What Are Appellate Courts?
Let me explain appellate courts to you directly: they're also called courts of appeals, and they're a key part of the American judicial system. Their main job is to hear and review appeals from cases that have already gone through a trial-level or other lower court.
If you're a person or an entity like a corporation that didn't get the outcome you wanted in a lower court, you can file an appeal here. If your appeal holds up, the appellate court might reverse that lower ruling. You'll find these courts at both state and federal levels, and importantly, they don't involve juries—just judges.
Key Takeaways
Appellate courts focus on reviewing appeals from cases already decided in lower courts. They handle matters at state and federal levels but use only a panel of judges, often called justices, instead of a jury. On the federal side, there are 13 appeals courts, and each state has its own system, sometimes including intermediate appellate courts.
How Appellate Courts Work
Here's how these courts operate: they examine lower court decisions to see if the law was applied correctly. They're there in the judicial system to give you a chance to challenge a judgment against you.
For instance, if a publicly traded company faces an unfavorable ruling, its stock price might drop, but a successful appeal could turn that around and boost the price. If your appeal doesn't succeed here, you might take it further to the Supreme Court.
These courts look at the findings and evidence from the lower court to check if there's enough to support the decision. They also verify if the lower court applied the law properly. The pinnacle of this in the U.S. is the Supreme Court, which only takes on appeals of major importance.
Appellate Courts vs. Supreme Courts
Supreme courts generally hold more authority and a wider scope than appellate courts. In America, the U.S. Supreme Court is the ultimate legal authority, and many states have their own supreme courts as the court of last resort.
These supreme courts review decisions from appeals courts. Federally, there are 13 appellate courts—12 for districts and one for the Federal Circuit. Many states add intermediate appellate courts to ease the load on their supreme court; in fact, 41 out of 50 states have at least one.
Example of an Appellate Court Ruling
Consider this real-world case: in the summer of 2020, shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. climbed after an appellate court delayed a new California law that would reclassify gig workers, like their drivers, as employees.
The court decided to hold off on a lower court's ruling that upheld the law's legality until it could fully review the appeal. But soon after, hopes faded for investors thinking Uber and Lyft could avoid providing benefits or workers' compensation.
In October 2020, the California First District Court of Appeals ruled the law was legal and enforceable, forcing Uber and Lyft to treat California drivers as employees with entitled benefits and wages under state labor law. By February 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, upholding the decision, and the U.K. Supreme Court followed suit.
Other articles for you
Preferred dividends are payments made to preferred shareholders before common shareholders, based on fixed rates and par value.
Revolving credit is a flexible borrowing option that lets you repeatedly access funds up to a set limit while making payments to restore availability.
Allowance for credit losses is an accounting estimate that companies use to anticipate and account for uncollectible debts from customers.
A private company is a privately owned business not traded on public exchanges and exempt from certain regulatory requirements.
Investment management involves professionally handling financial assets to meet clients' investment goals.
Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist renowned for his contributions to information economics, risk aversion, and monopolistic competition.
The Hodrick-Prescott filter is a macroeconomic tool that smooths data by removing short-term business cycle fluctuations to reveal long-term trends.
An offline debit card allows payments from a bank account with delayed debiting and no PIN required, similar to writing a check.
A ballpark figure is a rough numerical estimate used when an exact value is unknown to facilitate discussions or planning.
Noncallable securities are financial instruments that issuers cannot redeem early without penalties, protecting investors from reinvestment risk but exposing issuers to higher interest costs.