How Appeals Work in Personal Injury Cases

Most personal injury cases never make it to trial. The vast majority end up settling before the dispute becomes contentious enough to enter a courtroom. Nevertheless, plenty of personal injury claims do end up in the trial phase of litigation, which raises the risk of more serious losses for defendants, especially if the plaintiff is particularly sympathetic. Fortunately for losing parties, trial is not the end of the line, with appeals offering a second chance to prevail. If you are involved in personal injury litigation or think you might be, our North Carolina personal injury defense attorneys can advise you, from settlement negotiations to trial and beyond. 

Trials vs. Appeals 

Trials and appeals work very differently. Trials are the type of litigation with which most people are familiar — each party, represented by their attorney, presents their arguments, questions their witnesses, cross-examines the other side’s witnesses, enters evidence into the record, and raises objections. All of this is overseen by a single judge who is usually joined by a jury. Appeals are significantly less dramatic. With appeals, each party prepares a lengthy brief outlining the reasons why they believe the trial court made the wrong (or right) decision, accompanied by citations to relevant cases and statutes. The parties’ lawyers then present oral arguments to a panel of three judges who ask probing questions about their positions. If the appellate court upholds the trial court’s decision, the case ends there (unless the losing party pursues another appeal to an even higher appellate court). If the appellate court concludes that the trial court erred in some way, it will overturn the decision and typically send the case back to the original trial court for further proceedings consistent with its instructions. 

Grounds for Appealing a Personal Injury Verdict 

Appeals are not merely “do-overs” of trials. As much as losing parties might want to, being unhappy with the trial court’s verdict is not a valid basis for appealing it. Rather, the losing party must identify specific errors the trial court made that could have affected the outcome of the case. Some of those bases are: 

Errors of Law 

Courts are not infallible. They can and do make errors of law, and when they do, the losing party has a right to ask an appeals court to review and potentially correct the error. Errors of law occur when the trial court misinterprets or misapplies the relevant law to the facts of the case. For example, if the controlling precedent in the jurisdiction requires the court to consider factors A, B, C, and D when making a determination on an issue, but the court only considers factors A, B, and D — or, perhaps, considers a different factor than it was supposed to — that could constitute an error of law sufficient for an appeal. Identifying errors of law in practice can be significantly more complex than this example, which is why you should speak to a North Carolina personal injury defense attorney if you think a judge in your case made one. 

Errors of Fact 

Appeals courts generally defer to trial courts on questions of fact (i.e., they assume the lower court got the facts right) and, as such, typically do not revisit factual issues from trial. Of course, as with nearly all legal matters, there are exceptions. Factual errors may be a valid basis for an appeal if the losing party can show that the trial court made a "clear error.” In these cases, the losing party must show that the trial court’s factual finding was clearly erroneous and resulted in prejudice. For example, a party could show clear error by demonstrating that the court found that a witness saw something when that witness’ testimony plainly shows the opposite. 

Procedural Errors 

Procedural rules are designed to protect the interests of both parties and ensure that they receive proper due process and a fair trial. Therefore, procedural errors can significantly negatively impact one or both parties when they occur. Examples of procedural errors include improper admission or exclusion of evidence, improper jury instructions, non-standard handling of evidence, and failure to provide proper notice. Like legal errors, procedural errors can be difficult for non-lawyers to identify. However, our North Carolina personal injury defense attorneys not only have experience identifying such errors, but fighting them on appeal. 

Abuse of Discretion 

Appeals based on abuse of discretion are less common, but no less valid. Generally, a judge commits an abuse of discretion when their ruling is arbitrary, capricious, devoid of reasoning, departs from established practices, or contains only summary or conclusory statements, among other shortcomings. Put another way, an abuse of discretion could occur if a reasonable person, looking at the same facts, could not have made the same finding the court made.  

Jury Misconduct 

Many personal injury trials are conducted before juries, so any misconduct on the part of the jury can have an enormous impact on the parties. Examples of jury misconduct include discussing the case with outside parties, improper communications with the parties or their attorneys, seeking information from outside sources, failing to follow the judge’s instructions, and concealing bias during jury selection, among others. 

Preserving Issues for Appeal 

Planning for an appeal begins at the trial stage. That is because, in order to “preserve” an issue for appeal, a party must have made an objection to the alleged error during trial and stated their specific grounds for the objection. The losing party cannot go back through the record only after a verdict to search for possible errors to serve as grounds for appeal. This is why it is so important to work with a North Carolina personal injury defense attorney who has experience spotting potential errors during trial and properly preserving them for appeal. 

Turn a Loss Into a Win With Help From a North Carolina Personal Injury Defense Attorney 

For more information about the grounds for pursuing an appeal from an adverse trial court verdict, please contact a North Carolina personal injury defense attorney at Harris, Creech, Ward & Blackerby by calling 252-638-6666 or using our online contact form.