Session 7: Rehearing and Higher Court Review

This post features the video and slidedeck for the seventh lecture in my Appellate Practice and Procedure course. The presentation appears below.

How do you convince an appellate court to change its mind when it's already ruled against you? Merely repeating arguments you've already made will not do. Motions for rehearing are rarely successful, but if you're going to bring one, focus on problems with the court's opinion and any new decisions that may have led the court to decide the case differently. And whatever you do, don't make it personal.

Higher court review presents its own set of challenges. Are the issues you would take up important to others besides your client? Do opinions from the lower courts conflict on those issues? Has a dissenting opinion given you a framework for structuring a petition likely to catch the justices' attention? Perhaps most importantly, does the client have the economic fortitude to continue fighting after losing in the court below?