Lampman Law is located on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and we litigate criminal appeals and PCRA actions in the Superior and Supreme courts from convictions arising in trial courts throughout Pennsylvania.
If you are interested in retaining Lampman Law, please immediately contact us for a free consultation. It is essential that you contact us as early as possible so we can take the necessary action to timely review your case and act before the Concise Statement is due and/or must be filed.
Whenever we are called to discuss appealing a criminal conviction, we immediately focus on the procedural timeline of the case and review the available facts to determine the best available course of attack.
Ideally, if we are hired early enough, we like to file post-sentence motions whenever it is appropriate. Most trial courts hate being wrong and would prefer to fix an error in- house rather than being ordered by an appellate court to correct the mistake. This is also the best chance to achieve expedited relief.
If a notice of appeal has not been filed, we must determine if we can act fast enough to file and preserve the right to appeal. If a notice of appeal has not been timely filed, we then examine if a PCRA action against prior counsel is appropriate.
If a notice of appeal has been recently filed, we will immediately enter our appearance and respond to the Superior Court’s docketing statement.
We then focus our attention on identifying and ordering the relevant transcripts. Once we have the transcripts, we read them line-by-line while taking notes and charting the issues we might want to appeal. Closely reviewing the transcripts is essential to identifying the proper and best arguments to appeal.
The concise statement is the pivotal moment of the direct appeal process. If a concise statement has been filed, we will evaluate it and seek to amend it if necessary. Otherwise, we will review the transcripts and include the case’s best issue(s) in the concise statement.
After the concise statement is filed, the trial court will issue an opinion defending its ruling. We carefully review the trial court’s opinion before we draft our brief.
Drafting an organized, persuasive, and well written brief is a multi-step process. Each step is time consuming. Reviewing the statement of errors and the trial court opinion are the obvious starting point. Narrowing the focus of the brief is one of the most challenging and important tasks in appellate advocacy. Once the facts, arguments, and required parts are drafted, the editing process begins. Finally, we draft the and complete the table of contents and table of authorities. The brief is then electronically filed.
Additionally, the rules require us to submit paper copies of the brief to the Court. Therefore, after the brief is e-filed, we send it to a printer to be printed and bound. The paper copies are then packaged and mailed to the Court.
Oral arguments require special preparation. During oral argument, it is important for counsel to be prepared to explain, discuss, and answer difficult questions about the case, the opposition’s arguments, and the relevant caselaw.
If you are interested in retaining Lampman Law, please immediately contact us for a free consultation. It is essential that you contact us as early as possible so that we can take the necessary action to timely review your case and act before the Concise Statement is due and/or must be filed.
When the Notice of Appeal has been filed, Lampman Law attorneys focus our attention on identifying and ordering the relevant transcripts. There are also fees for transcripts, and they can be expensive. Once we have the transcripts, we read them line-by-line while taking notes and charting the issues we might want to argue on appeal. Closely reviewing the transcripts is essential to identifying the proper and best arguments to appeal.
If a notice of appeal has been recently filed, we will immediately enter our appearance and respond to the Superior Court’s docketing statement.
The concise statement provides the trial court with a list of issues that will be raised on appeal. Failure to include an issue in the concise statement will result in the Superior Court’s refusal to consider the issue. Issues not specified in the concise statement are deemed waived. Accordingly, filing of the concise statement is one of the most critical and important steps in the appeal process.
When the concise statement is filed, the trial court normally issues an opinion outlining its reasoning supporting its decision. After the trial court files its opinion, the Superior Court then issues a briefing schedule. The briefing schedule provides the deadlines for when the parties must file their briefs.
After the briefs are submitted, the Superior Court may schedule oral argument. However, most cases are decided without oral argument.
The Superior Court issues its decision by publishing an opinion or releasing a memorandum.
