Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in California

Starting an appeal is easy -- you simply have to serve and file a notice of appeal after an appealable judgment or order has been entered and before the deadline has passed.

Figuring out whether a particular ruling is appealable, though, can be quite hard. So can calculating the due date for the notice.

But the notice of appeal is just the first step in a long and complicated process. You should have a lawyer represent you -- preferably one with appellate expertise. If you can't afford to hire one, you may be eligible to have one appointed for you at public expense.

Finally, it's not clear what you mean by "misrepersention on a criminal trial", so I can't say whether you have grounds for an appeal. I would need to know what happened at trial before I could offer any guidance.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you want to discuss your case in more detail. I have many years of experience in appeals and writs, and am certified as an appellate specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization -- a certification held by just 284 of the roughly 200,000 lawyers practicing in this state.

I am not sure what you are asking. Typically, misrepresentation if you are talking about representation by counsel is difficult to raise since it usually is not in the record on appeal. If you are talking about misrepresentation of the facts during the trial, it again often is outside the record on appeal and cannot be raised. A petition for writ of coram nobis or habeas corpus is used to raise ineffective assistance of counsel as an issue. If the trial recently concluded you might consider a motion for new trial as a means of putting facts in the record or to include recently discovered facts. As you can see the options are multiple and are dictated by the circumstances which you have not provided. You might want to discuss this with an appellate attorney where the relevant circumstances can be added.

I agree with Mr. Goff. If you believe your counsel was incompetent and if you are either in jail, in prison, on probation, on parole, or still directly feeling the effects of the sentence you want to file a writ of habeas corpus. While many writs are files in pro per and appointed counsel is not normally available in such instances, to have any reasonable chance of succeeding you should have a criminal defense attorney with significant experience in the field.