What is a Motion to Appeal?

When you represent yourself, you don't know the process of submitting evidence until it's too late. The courts won't ask and when you present it, it's denied.

@Emilski - Although I can understand your frustration with the legal system, as it does let some guilty people go free from time to time, as well as take up a lot of time and tax payer money, the appeal process is necessary in any form of government that has a trial based legal system.

Imagine if we did not have an appeals process or an appeals process that was incredibly hard to have a case heard. What would happen is that the mistakes made in courts would never be heard and those mistakes could not be corrected.

It is very easy to make a mistake in the court of law and although technicalities shown during appeals do sometimes work in favor of people that do not deserve it, mistakes are made for the innocent as well and the appeals process allows for anyone to be able to have their case heard a second time and give the courts a second chance in order to fix a potential mistake.

A motion to appeal allows anyone to be able to request their case be heard again but it has to be able to show a legitimate reason for the request. If not the appeal will be turned down and seen as a last ditch effort as you described.

Although the legal system does allow for appeals they tend to do so way too often. I know they want to be sure of someone's guilt, as well as provide the defense with a fair chance to address any problems that may have occurred with the first trial, but how often does a case get turned down in the appeal process and seen as simply a last ditch effort in order to somehow "sneak one by" the legal system.

@TreeMan - It is expected that most cases will be appealed in some way, shape, or form. However, there must always be a legitimate reason to do so. in order to file a motion to appeal one has to give the appeals court an argument that states that in some way they were tried unfairly or something went wrong in the first case, such as critical evidence not being allowed, or the sentencing was way too stringent.

The appeals process is set in place in order to correct mistakes made during the first trials and although they do clog up the courts they do allow for people to have a second chance to have their cases heard and allow the courts to decide a second time on the case, to be sure of the decision made.

Something that is never final in the area of law is the judge's decision. Because of the right to appeal a case is almost never over until the either the appeal is dropped or the entire appeal process is exerted and a final decision of the law is finally made.

Many people see appeals as simply a way to flood the legal system and are last ditch efforts to try and obtain a verdict in one's favor, however it law almost nothing is final in the first trial and an appeal is always expected to be filed.