dreamer, was fraud a cause of action in your lawsuit? if not, I can't imagine why your attorney did not include it.

Dreamer
If you had a law suit and lost then the opposing counsel can ask the judge for his/her legal fees. It does not have anything to do with appeal. If you appeal and lose then you have additional fees to pay.

That said may I ask what exactly did you bring suit for. That is not what you’re upset with and or think you are upset with. Look at your document and you will see something like Count 1 is Count 2 is etc

The thing is if you sue based on you bought something different from what you thought you did then it goes back to the legal/tax ID number and if that is correct then you bought what you thought you bought regardless of the acreage. Based on what info you are giving I think that is what happened here, and why the judge ruled against you.

Now if you move forward you may have a case against the listing agent and seller for false advertising. If they advertised as you say 4.67 ac and in fact its 3.5 acres. Then you might want to think about false advertising. Be careful as if they also put something like MOL after that it will make wining a little more difficult and MOL stands for More or Less.

Also let me ask did you actually sue for forged documents or just that what you bought was not what you thought you bought. And that the forged document was part of your evidence. If that’s the case the Judge may have ruled based on the fact then it did not matter about the forged document as it would not have changed his ruling either way.

It all goes back to what are you actually suing for. Not your evidence or feelings.

I am not a lawyer or giving legal advice just that I have been through something similar.

Dreamer

LOCALLY: An appeal must be filed within a prescribed time period, provided there is sufficient and credible evidence to warrant an appeal.

An appeal can be made on

1. the conviction
2. the penalty (harsh and unusual punishment) beyond established guidelines and/or precedents)
3. an error in law
4. an error in the application and interpretation of the law
5. an error in the facts
6. an error in interpretation of the facts
7. an error in procedure
8. the reasons

An appeal is not a new trial (except in very limited circumstances.) An appeal is not an opportunity to have a panel of judges hear the case a second time to see if they will make a different decision.

An appeal will not necessarily succeed, even if the appeal panel would have made a different decision themselves. The scope of an appeal is determined by the type of case that is being appealed. In most cases, you cannot introduce new evidence on the appeal.

An appeal court looks at the evidence from the original trial, which is made of transcripts of the evidence of the witnesses, the transcript of the judge’s reasons and the physical evidence which was entered as exhibits. That’s it.

The arguments and submissions of the lawyers are not included. The appeal court does not get to see the witnesses to asses their attitude and credibility.

The appeal court does not look at the evidence and make a decision that it thinks is right on the facts.

The test for an appeal is this: Can the decision of the trial judge be supported by the evidence? In other words, the appeal court may have decided differently, but if the tried judge had the evidence to back up his or her reasons, the appeal fails.

Here is another problem with appeals: as the appeal judge does not get to see the witnesses in the stand, any findings that the trial judge makes on credibility are virtually untouchable.

So, if the trial judge did not believe your testimony and believed the other side, the appeal court will do the same.

Appeals can be expensive with no guarantee of the outcome and in the event the appellate court ordered a new trial there would be the corresponding costs related thereto and still with no guarantee.

Important Notice: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information