Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in New York

Re: Appeal to a higher Court

First you have to file a Notice of Appeal and then you need to "perfect" your appeal.

Perfecting an Appeal or Proceeding

Once an appeal is taken by filing a notice of appeal or obtaining an order granting leave to appeal, or a proceeding is transferred to or duly commenced in this court, it must be "perfected". An appeal or proceeding is perfected when the appellant or petitioner has taken all the steps necessary to place it on the court's calendar (22 NYCRR 670.2[a][4]). Generally, this means filing a brief and providing the court with the papers that led to the determination under review. There are three main methods for perfecting an appeal (22 NYCRR 670.9). The first is the full record method, which requires the party to print all the papers which were before the court which made the judgment or order which is the subject of the appeal in a booklet called the record on appeal and to serve and file it with a brief setting forth his or her contentions. The second is the appendix method, which is similar to the full record method except that those parts of the papers that are not germane to the appeal need not be printed. The third is the original papers method, in which the appellant or petitioner serves and files a brief, and subpoenas the original papers for filing with the clerk of the Appellate Division, Second Department. The full record and appendix method are predominantly used to perfect civil causes and the original papers method is used predominantly to perfect Family Court and criminal causes (22 NYCRR 670.9[d][1][viii]). The requirements concerning the form and the content of records, appendices, and briefs can be found in CPLR 5526, 5528, 5529, and � 670.10.1, 670.10.2, and 670.10.3 of the rules of the court.

Pursuant to � 670.8(e) of the rules, an appellant has six months from the date of the notice of appeal, or, in the case of a proceeding transferred to the court pursuant to CPLR 7804(g), six months from the date of the order of transfer, to perfect the appeal or proceeding (22 NYCRR 670.8[e]). Papers are deemed filed in this court as of the time they are actually received in the clerk's office accompanied by proof of service on all necessary parties. Papers received in the clerk's office after the time to perfect the appeal has expired will be rejected as untimely, even if they were timely mailed. Papers that are rejected as untimely may not be filed unless the person seeking to file them obtains an enlargement of time to do so (22 NYCRR 670.8[d]).

Good luck!