Notice Of Appeal

In federal court, a Notice of Appeal must typically be taken within 14 days of an entry of a criminal judgment and within 30 days of a civil judgment (except in a civil case involving the U.S. government, when the time period is extended to 60 days). Deadlines for appealing are very strict and it is essential to double-check the rules before missing one. In state court deadlines can be as short as two days for appealing certain kinds of orders. Some kinds of post-judgment motions can extend the deadline to appeal, while others do not.

Notices of appeal are filed in the federal district court, not in the federal appellate court. Inexperienced attorneys will look for rules for filing an appeal in the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, when the rules are located in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which governs the district (trial) court.

The 30 day deadline is not the same as "one month," as most months have the longer 31 days.

The required contents of a federal civil appeal are set forth in Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 3:

(1) The notice of appeal must:

(A) specify the party or parties taking the appeal by naming each one in the caption or body of the notice, but an attorney representing more than one party may describe those parties with such terms as “all plaintiffs,” “the defendants,” “the plaintiffs A, B, et al.,” or “all defendants except X”;

(B) designate the judgment, order, or part thereof being appealed; and

(C) name the court to which the appeal is taken.

Common mistakes include not expressly identifying all of the court judgments or orders being appealed, not correctly identifying who is appealing, and not correctly identifying the court to which the appeal is taken (which is not always obvious, and must be identified even if it is obvious).

Statute authorizing appeal[edit]

Many appeals are by right from 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which authorizes appeals from final judgments by a federal district court: