Appellate Practice

Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson, L.L.P. has developed an Appellate Practice area whose members have extensive knowledge of appellate court procedures and have highly developed appellate skills in such areas as legal research, brief writing, and oral advocacy. Utilization of this knowledge and skill gives the Firm's clients their best opportunity to preserve a favorable trial court result or to overturn an unfavorable one.

Recognizing that the chances for success on appeal often begin in the trial court by properly preserving grounds for error and developing a proper record, the Firm's appellate attorneys provide assistance and advice to trial counsel in these areas. The appellate lawyer is intimately familiar with the standard of review the appellate court will utilize and the types of arguments the appellate court will find persuasive when reviewing trial court rulings, and uses this familiarity to assist the trial lawyer lay the groundwork for developing a record that will maximize the chances of prevailing on appeal.

In addition, the Firm's appellate attorneys advise and represent clients with respect to bonding of judgments and seeking stays of the enforceability of judgments pending the outcome of the appeal. The Firm's appellate attorneys also represent clients who wish to appear in an appeal as amicus curiae, that is one who is not a party to the litigation but who has such an interest that will be affected by the appellate court's decision that it is permitted to address the issues on appeal as a "friend of the court."

The Firm's appellate practice was pioneered by the late E.J. Doerner, whose name appears in nearly 100 reported appellate cases between 1921 and 1976, and who was involved in numerous other unreported decisions. Today, the attorneys in the Firm's Appellate Practice area handle appeals in state and federal courts and administrative tribunals in all areas of civil litigation and administrative law. Collectively, the members of the group are admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, several of the federal circuit courts of appeals, and several state appellate courts.