What Factors Affect the Cost of Filing an Appeal?
When it comes to the cost of appealing in family court, a number of variables will contribute to the total price tag of the process. Those may include: Court filing fees: Within thirty (30) days after the final judgment or order has been filed, a Notice of Appeal needs to be filed with the Appellate Court and accompanied by an Affidavit of Impoundment. As of June 2012, the Appellate Court filing fee for a Notice of Appeal is $250.00. Appellate filing fees: The Appellate Court’s filing fee for a Notice of Appeal is $350.00 as of June 2013. With a $50 Fee Waiver Request form, a litigant may ask for a waiver from the filing fee. This fee request form also requires an Affidavit of Indigency. Assisting Attorney Fees: Often, you may decide to hire an attorney to assist you with the brief writing either because you are not able to or because you believe your case would benefit from having an attorney help you. This will, of course, add to the overall cost of the appeal. Private Copying Costs: Many original documents may need to be copied for submission to the Appellate Court for consideration. These may include: If you had to prepare a statement of the case and if you were not able to obtain the record from the court, you may need to have the trial transcript typed at your expense. In addition, transcripts obtained from the court (which includes all the exhibits presented at the trial) are also stale, meaning you have to pay to have them copied for the Appellate Court. Filing costs recoverable from the other party: When you are victorious in the appeal against the other party , the Appellate Court can order the other party to pay your timely incurred reasonable necessary attorney fees and chapter fees. This means that the other person will be required to reimburse you for any appellate attorney fees, within reason, that you paid to your private attorney for the appeal. Mediation fees: If your case is sent to mediation by the Appellate Court, you will be charged the reasonable cost of such mediation service. If you do not attend the mediation, you will be found to have abandoned the case unless you were given leave from the court. Also, if the mediation is successful, you can be charged for this reasonable service. Costs while waiting for the Appellate Court to decide whether or not they will hear the case: Any time you file a paragraph 12-20 motion, you will be charged a $100.00 filing fee. There is an additional $25.00 page fee for the motion brief and an additional $10.00 per motion for the appendix. When requested to reimburse the other party for your brief writing and mediation fee costs incurred on the opposing party’s behalf, the court will give you further time to pay these costs. Staying the Order While Waiting for the Supreme Court’s Decision: In order for you to have a time period in which you did not have to pay the other party’s awarded costs, you may ask that the appeal stay in place pending the outcome before the Supreme Court. The court will charge you with the party to whom the payment is owed a $200.00 filing fee, a $50.00 page fee per motion brief, and $10.00 per motion to the Litigattion Center.
Standard Filing Fees for Appeals in Family Court
The cost of appealing a decision in a family court case can vary depending on where you live, however below is a range of typical filing fees associated with notice(s) of appeal in family court:
- District of Columbia: $310
- Delaware: $450
- Florida: $295
- Massachusetts: $300
- New Jersey: $250
- New York City: $255 online or $320 by mail
- New York State: $65
- Pennsylvania: $90
- Puerto Rico: $350
- Washington: $250
- West Virginia: $226
- Virgin Islands: $250
Many states allow you to file your notice of appeal/remand on paper, without paying a filing fee, if you submit an Affidavit of Indigency. As of October 2018, only the District of Columbia allows any court judgments to be entered upon payment of the filing fee in installments, rather than in full. Further, woodcocklaw.com lists filing fees in neighboring states (Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey) as follows:
- Virginia: $50 per notice of appeal in domestic relations cases (and $500 for all other cases)
- Maryland: $45
- New Jersey: $200 (plus $250 if you need to file a transcript)
All of the fees listed here are higher than the cost of filing notices of appeal in civil cases, which typically range from $25-30 depending on the state’s court system. In many cases, filing fees in family court cases are so high because the docket attracts a lot of appeals related to financial issues such as spousal support and equitable distribution, which traditionally bring in a lot of revenue for courts. While the trend in the past was to simply pay the filing fee, file an appeal, and prepare for an expensive appellate process, some judges as of 2019 are showing greater flexibility when it comes to payment plans and/or waiving filing fees.
Lawyer Fees and Other Costs for Filing an Appeal
Calculating Attorney Fees and Other Legal Costs for Appeals in Family Court
In addition to the filing fee mentioned above, attorney fees as well as other legal costs of an appeal must also be considered. Arizona rules of civil procedure require that a party’s lawyer write a request for an order awarding costs and attorneys’ fees in favor of that party and against the other party, and submit it to the court no more than 30 days after that party can file its memorandum in compliance with the format required by the court. As explained above, typically, the party seeking an award of appellant costs and/or attorney fees will be the appealing party, or the "appellant."
Essentially, the fee awarded is intended as compensation for the work performed by the lawyer on the appeal subject to the discretion of the court. As the named party in a family court action, the "father" or "father’s name" may be sent the statement of fees and a separate fee request from the court. Initially the parent involved and the court itself may be involved in the calculation of the anticipated attorney fees. However, once the fees are awarded, the ultimate responsibility for paying the fees will rest with the father, mother, or other relevant parent.
How to Save Money on Your Appeal
Appeals can be very costly in themselves; however, there are options that may help minimize the expense and effort associated with filing an appeal. The cost of an appeal can be reduced by filing a pro se notice of appeal, approaching family members to obtain financial assistance, seeking pro bono legal representation or by settling out of court.
Pro Se Representation on an Appeal. The best way and the most common way to avoid expenses associated with an appeal is to do it yourself. Inappropriately, many pro se litigants in Illinois believe that "family law" cases are different from other cases (and therefore easier and less formal). This is not true. In caring cases, the administrative rules set by the circuit court of each county must be followed. This includes, inter alia, the format of pleadings and documents, the required number of copies and how the parties serve each other and the court. Each appellate court has specific rules with which an appellant must comply. The rules are very specific , and the appellant must comply with all of them. An appellant who does not comply with all of the appellate rules may have his or her case dismissed outright or for failure to include certain documents and after being given an opportunity to correct the mistakes: the appellate court may dismiss the appeal; or Reserve the right to enforce sanctions against the appellant including requiring the appellant to pay the other parties’ court costs associated with the appeal. Ultimately, any errant filings may result in the appellant having to cover the costs and attorney’s fees of opposing party.
Ask for Settlement Contributions. Many pro se petitioners and appellants ask family members (i.e., parents, grandparents, and siblings) to contribute to appeal fees including attorney’s fees and expert fees. Where a parent is paying for his or her child, s/he should not need to pay "extra" for an appeal.
Legal Aid Some lawyers and organizations provide pro bono legal representation to qualifying low income parties. An alternative to this is limited scope representation (also called unbundled legal services) wherein a party pays an attorney to perform specific tasks on their behalf; and, subsequently, gives them the option to hire the attorney for additional tasks as their appeal progresses.
Mediation Plaintiff could offer to present the defendant with the option to mediate a settlement with the understanding that both parties agree to equally share any settlement costs.
Legal Aid and Other Resources for Appeal Filings
If you find yourself in a position where you have lost a trial in family court and are contemplating an appeal, the cost of the appeal may be a concern. However, there several financial assistance programs and legal aid services available for individuals who cannot afford the cost of an appeal.
Law schools often run 3L clinics: The Hofstra Law Family Court Appeals Clinic works with pro bono and low-income clients who are appealing or defending appeals from decisions of New York State Family Courts. Working with faculty members who have extensive appellate experience, students develop their litigation skills through briefing and arguing preliminary questions, perfecting appeals, writing appellate briefs, conducting client interviews, and delivering oral arguments. Pace Law School offers pro bono clients the opportunity to work on a First or Second Department Civil or Appellate case under the supervision of clinical faculty. The student fully handles the research, brief writing and oral argument preparation. Cardozo Law School has a school clinic that provides second-year students the opportunity to work on a 1st and 2nd department civil appellate case under the supervision of clinical faculty. Students handle research assignments, brief writing and oral argument preparation.
How Costs Impact the Process of Appealing a Case
Costs are part of the fabric of any appeal. The costs of appealing and the courts’ approach to those costs may impact on the decision of a party as to whether to appeal as well as the manner in which the appeal is brought and run. There are costs payable to the court itself, the solicitors’ own costs for taking the appeal through, and costs that may be awarded by the Court on appeal to the other party.
The costs payable to the court itself are court fees. Fees are payable for issuing the appeal notice and for filing other documents with the court. Whilst the number of court fees payable may seem daunting (there are a number of forms to complete for what is not such a straightforward process), the cost of fees is less when an appeal is lodged following the conclusion of a final hearing (the issue is usually more about timing than work) when there is daily hearing fee, than on an interim hearing or final contested hearing where fees are paid at the time of issue.
The other costs are the solicitors’ own costs of bringing the appeal. Each party to an appeal bears its own appeal costs. It is very rare for the costs of an appeal to be apportioned between the parties so that one is ordered to pay a proportion of the other’s costs of an appeal. A party will therefore bear its own costs of bringing the appeal through , even if they win. How a party can recover from the other party its own costs of an appeal is covered below.
If one party loses on appeal, the other may ask the appeal court to order the losing party to pay to them their costs of the appeal. The principles are similar to a final hearings in the Family Court. The appeal court will only make such an order in the "usual circumstances" where the court considers that a costs order should be made. The costs order that is made will be proportionate to the issues, the amounts of money involved and the strength of that party’s case. The appeal court will rarely award more costs to a successful party at appeal than the amount of the costs that are awarded to that party following a contested first instance hearing (both first instance hearings following a FDR appointment and contested financial remedy proceedings are dealt with by the same rules).
An appeal takes up a considerable amount of time. It is atypical for the court to allocate less than an hour for consideration of a case. In my experience appeals where there is no oral argument, e.g. where an appeal is dealt with on the papers, there can be more than one hearing. A party’s costs are naturally increased by the need for the issue of court fees to be handled and for the significant amount of preparation for an appeal to take place.