Superior Court Appeal

My lawyer totally dropped the ball while drafting our appeal to the Superior Court. He completely missed mentioning two final rulings from that same court that are directly tied to this case and the Bureau of Land Management’s decision—rulings that are totally on our side! Those precedents prove that the District Court’s ruling was straight-up wrong. To make matters worse, the appeal was filed late and it's honestly a mess. The deadlines have already passed, and the case just hit the docket at the Superior Court a few days ago. I need to know if there's any way I can step in as the client to fix this. It’s not even a massive amount of money, so we won't be looking at a Supreme Court review, and I'm terrified the Superior Court is going to rule against us just because of these omissions. Is there any kind of extraordinary legal remedy that would let me get these crucial pieces of evidence in front of the higher court? We need them to actually reach a fair decision.

I really need an answer on this ASAP---Thanks

Hannah Brown12 said:My lawyer totally dropped the ball while drafting our appeal to the Superior Court. He completely missed mentioning two final rulings from that same court that are directly tied to this case and the Bureau of Land Management’s decision—rulings that are totally on our side! Those precedents prove that the District Court’s ruling was straight-up wrong. To make matters worse, the appeal was filed late and it's honestly a mess. The deadlines have already passed, and the case just hit the docket at the Superior Court a few days ago. I need to know if there's any way I can step in as the client to fix this. It’s not even a massive amount of money, so we won't be looking at a Supreme Court review, and I'm terrified the Superior Court is going to rule against us just because of these omissions. Is there any kind of extraordinary legal remedy that would let me get these crucial pieces of evidence in front of the higher court? We need them to actually reach a fair decision.

I really need an answer on this ASAP---Thanks

When you say it's "poorly written," is that your own assessment, or did some low-level clerk or official in the US system tell you that? Look, I'm not out here defending lawyers by default, but nowadays everyone thinks they're an expert because they have access to a mountain of information. It's like waiting for people to start performing their own surgery just because their doctor did a hack job on their appendix. They'll think they can just DIY it.

Besides, the US legal system doesn't run on precedent. Even if he had attached a hundred rulings in your favor to that Appellate Court appeal, it wouldn't change much. Maybe in a review, but that's about it.

Look, since the appeal was filed right on time—though I honestly wonder if the clerk even bothered to log it in the system when it arrived?—there’s really no reason why you couldn't just file a supplemental submission. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, you've got the legal right to amend things, so seriously, just give it a shot and see what happens.