Wyatt B. Durrette, Jr.
Barrett E. Pope
Debbie Seidel 
Christine A. Williams                                                                      

Appeals are in the news all the time – from Martha Stewart’s to the tobacco industry’s – but what exactly is an appeal and how might it pertain to you?  An appeal is a legal right given a party who feels that the trial court erred when making one or more of its rulings.  The rules of appellate procedure vary from court to court, but the main component of an appeal is asking a “higher” court to review what the trial court did to see if it made a mistake. This review is very limited and very specialized. The appellate court is restricted to only what is in the trial court’s record – the appellate court does not hear any testimony or review any new facts – and to the briefs and oral argument presented to it during the appeal process.

Thus, the appellate briefing and oral argument can win or lose a case.  That is why you need experienced appellate attorneys with outstanding writing and oral advocacy skills to convince the appellate court of your argument.

Look no further than the attorneys in DurretteBradshaw’s Appellate Law Group, whose accomplishments include the following: 

• Conspiracy verdict upheld by the Supreme Court of Virginia in Commercial Business Systems v. Halifax Corp., 253 Va. 292, 484 S.SE.2d 892 (1997).
• Two of the largest attorney fee awards upheld by the Supreme Court of Virginia.
• Favorable  precedent establishing that a shareholder’s dissenters’ rights were property interests and governed by the five-year statute of limitations in Willard v. Moneta Building Supply, Inc., 262 Va. 473; 551 S.E.2d 596 (2001).

Barrett E. Pope is the Chairman of the Appellate Law Group.