Fraud Appeals in Manassas

There are a number of important considerations when determining whether a person should appeal an adverse ruling in a fraud case. For this reason, it is crucial for a person who is pursuing a fraud appeal in Manassas to contact a Manassas fraud lawyer as soon as possible.

A qualified attorney can use their knowledge of Manassas laws as well as their experience in similar cases in order to provide sound advice on the steps a person should take when pursuing a fraud appeal in Manassas.

Filing an Appeal

If it is an appeal from the General District Court to the Circuit Court, the primary consideration is whether there is good reason to believe that a better outcome is available the second time around and if that likelihood outweighs the risk that it might be a worse outcome the second time around.

If a person is appealing the determination of the Circuit Court, then rather than being a new trial, it will be a scenario where we are looking for some defect in the process that will allow us to ask in appellate court to either overturn the results of the Circuit Court or to send it back to the Circuit Court for further proceedings including a new trial.

The primary reason a person would not want to file an appeal is because there is a substantial risk that at a retrial of their case, they might receive a harsher penalty than they received in the first place.

Appeals Process

When a person is appealing an adverse ruling of the General District Court, the fraud appeal process involves noting their appeal and then appearing in a Circuit Court to have the matter set for trial. Once that has happened, the matter will proceed to a second trial similar to what happened at the first trial. If a person is appealing the ruling of a Circuit Court, there is an appeal which is noted with the Circuit Court and then there are documents which are called a petition, which is filed with the Virginia Court of Appeals arguing why the Virginia Court of Appeals ought to take the case and the substantive reasons why a person is looking for either a reversal of their conviction or why they are looking for a new trial.

Hiring an Attorney

It is important to hire an attorney who has experience working on fraud appeal cases because it’s a very specialized area that requires particular knowledge of the appellate process, not only the procedural parts of it but also the substantive parts, in order to give a person the best chance that a person can possibly have to obtain a better outcome in the course of their appeal than what they have in the first case.

An experienced lawyer can assist a person in analyzing whether and under what circumstances they may be able to appeal an adverse ruling either at the General District Court level or at the Circuit Court level. The lawyer can then assist the person in filing the appeal and prosecuting the appeal before the appropriate court.