Hatch, Little & Bunn, LLP has proudly served the Triangle area of North Carolina for more than forty-five years. Our success is based on our ability to provide clients with understandable information and legal counsel so that they can make informed decisions. We take our role of counselors, confidants and advisors seriously.

Appellate Law, also known as the appeals process, consists of the rules and practices by which higher courts review lower court judgments. The North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals review trial court decisions in which a party claims that an error was made in applying the law or during the lower court procedures. The appellate courts have no jury and make no opinion as to guilt or innocence - instead the judges consider errors made in legal procedures or in judicial interpretation of the law that affected the original decision. The Court of Appeals is North Carolina's only intermediate appellate court. Fifteen judges in rotating panels of three review every case appealed from the Superior and District courts except death penalty cases. In fiscal year 2003-2004, more than 1,750 cases were filed with the Court of Appeals, ranging from parking tickets to murder. Cases in which there is a dissent in the Court of Appeals may be appealed as a matter of right to the Supreme Court, while the other cases may be accepted by the Supreme Court for review through petition by the non-prevailing party.

Appellate law requires a creative legal mind to identify issues, exceptional research skills and the ability to persuade in both written and oral advocacy. Several issues arise in every appeal, including the type of judgments that may be appealed, the process for bringing appeals before the court, and the standard of review required for a reversal of the lower court's decision. However, every appeal presents a different legal issue, which must be discovered and developed for the Court's consideration.

Successful appeals attorneys apply detailed analysis, comprehensive research, skilled writing and persuasive oral arguments in their appeals cases. Your qualified Hatch, Little & Bunn, LLP Appellate attorney will:

• Identify the appellate court that has jurisdiction to preside over the appeal and the procedures that must be followed to properly pursue an appeal,
• Discover the issues that may be appealed from your trial court decision and determine if these fundamental issues have been properly preserved,
• Present clear, precise, and well-conceived arguments, and
• Give comprehensive and concise answers to the appellate court's questions at oral argument.