After a first PCRA petition is denied — whether at summary dismissal or after a full evidentiary hearing — one of the first questions petitioners and their families ask is: can we file another one? The short answer is that…
When Utah’s state post-conviction proceedings have been exhausted — when the PCRA petition has been decided and the state appeals have concluded — one more avenue may remain: a federal habeas corpus petition filed in the United States District Court…
Most states with a two-tier appellate system route appeals directly to the intermediate appellate court, with the state supreme court entering the picture only through discretionary review. Utah does something structurally different. Nearly every appeal is technically filed with the…
Most of this series has focused on certiorari — the discretionary mechanism for getting a case from the Court of Appeals to the Utah Supreme Court. But not every case follows that route. Some matters proceed directly to the Utah…
You lost at the Utah Court of Appeals. The opinion came down, the panel affirmed the trial court — or reversed in a way that hurts you — and you believe the court got the law wrong. The instinct is…
Most people who find themselves in litigation assume that appeals happen at the end — after the jury verdict, after the judge’s final ruling, after the case is over. That assumption is largely correct. But it has an exception that…
When an appeal is filed or an appellate petition is pending, litigation often continues in the district court. Discovery proceeds, hearings are scheduled, and in some cases a judgment is being enforced while briefing works its way through the appellate…
In Utah, the appellate court cannot take jurisdiction over your case until a final judgment has been entered. This is the final judgment rule, and it is not a procedural preference — it is jurisdictional. A party who attempts to…
Lotus Appellate Law handles appeals throughout Utah, serving clients in all counties and courts across the state including: