How Long Do You Have to File an Appeal for a Civil Court Decision?

Transcription It depends on what kind of decision you’re appealing. If there’s an adverse trial verdict, you’ve only got 10 days to file post-trial motions. If you don’t file those motions, you’ll waive your appeal. So, after an adverse verdict, you’ve got 10 days to file post-trial motions. Once they’re decided, you’ve got 30 days from that decision to file the notice of appeal, so those are the deadlines that are in play. If the civil case is decided before a verdict is rendered, so for example if preliminary objections are granted or if summary judgment is granted, then you’ve got 30 days to file a notice of appeal from that decision that ends the case. To appeal a civil decision, that process through the superior court generally takes about a year, between nine months to a year and the process starts with the filing of a notice of appeal, and then informing the trial court what you’re appealing and then the trial court informing the superior court why it did what it did, and then once the file gets to the superior court, the court will issue a 40 day briefing schedule. After you file your brief, the other side has 30 days to file their brief, and then we have 14 days to file our reply brief, and then you set the case for oral argument if that’s appropriate and that’s usually a couple of months after the briefing is done, and then after oral argument the case will generally be three to four months later the case will be decided. So, if you’ve calculated all that time in, you’re looking at between nine months to a year to have the case resolved on appeal.