Appeals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts

George J. West & Associates handles appeals in the state and federal courts with much experience.  Attorney West has been named in SuperLawyers 2010 in the field of Criminal Appeals.   He also was noted for his work in Business Law and other fields.

Attorney West has represented criminal defendants in appeals in Rhode Island state Supreme Court and the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals for federal defendants in R.I.

Appeals are in order generally for those defendants who have been convicted by a jury and sentenced by the judge.  The conviction and sentence are then appealed to the appropriate court.  Occasionally defendants can appeal their sentence as well if they pled guilty.  The process is certainly a long one, with defendants waiting to obtain transcripts of their trials and sentencing hearings, before the appellate lawyer can draft a brief.  After completion of a jury trial and sentencing, it is important for a notice of appeal to be filed promptly with the appropriate court and transcripts to be ordered.  In the case of an indigent (or poor) defendant, the Court system will generally bear the cost of transcript preparation.

The next step following transcript production is the preparation of the appellate brief by the criminal defense appellate lawyer.  This exercise requires analysis of the legal issues which have been preserved at the trial; usually only the issues which have been objected to are available to appeal, in addition usually to whether there was sufficient evidence to convict.

After the submission of the appellate brief by the defense lawyer, the State or Federal Government have the opportunity to reply, with the defense lawyer rebutting that submission subsequently.  The vast majority of cases are allotted oral argument time in front of a high court, after which point a ruling is made.