Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in California

Re: Injunction Appeal

The denial of an injunction is an appealable order. You need to file a Notice of Appeal in order to get started, and there is a standard Judicial Council form for this; LawGuru isn't set up to allow me to give you a link, but you should be able to find the form online without too much difficulty. Calculating the deadline for this Notice can be tricky and involves many factors, but you will be safe if you file within 60 days of the date the judge entered his order. You must also give proper notice to the other parties, and you will have to pay a total of $755 in fees unless you get an indigency waiver.

The Notice of Apeal is the easy part. After that you need to order the record and start complying with some other administrative requirements.

Then you will need to write an opening brief and you will later have to reply to the other parties' briefs. There may also be an oral argument, though the appellate courts will usually allow the parties to waive the argument if all of them agree; such a waiver can speed up the process by a couple of months.

Appellate practice is difficult because the types of arguments you will need to make are different from those you made in the superior court. For example, you cannot argue that the judge believed a witness whose testimony she should have rejected, or disbelieved one who should have been deemed credible. Instead, you need to show that the court made some legal mistakes *and* that these mistakes resulted in a decision less favorable to you than you would otherwise have received. And not all mistakes are reviewed the same way -- judges are often given wide leeway to decide issues as they see fit, while in other instances their decisions are reviewed more closely. You need to know which standard applies to the type of decision you claim was in error and you need to tailor your argument accordingly.

You should have an attorney for your appeal and, if at all possible, you should get one with substantial appellate experience. I have been certified as a specialist in appellate law by the State Bar of California's Board of Legal Specialization (believe it or not, I have to say all of that each time I tell someone I'm certified) and know how to argue an appeal. Please feel free to contact me directly.