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Starting an Appeal - the Notice of Appeal
To file an
appeal, a party must file a Notice of Appeal with the clerk
of the trial court. App.R. 3. The Notice of Appeal generally must be
filed within 30 days of the date of the judgment the appellant wants to
appeal. App.R. 4. There may be exceptions to the 30-day limit
contained in Appellate Rule 4.
There are terms used in this
Guide that have special meanings. An "appellant" is any
person who has filed a Notice of Appeal. Local Rule 1(B)(1).
An "appellee" is any party to the trial court case who the appellant
indicates is an appellee on the docketing statement. Local Rule
1(B)(2). If the appellant does not name a party as an appellee, that party may file a motion asking the Court of Appeals to
treat the party as an appellee during the appeal.
The appellant must
file several documents to start an appeal:
You can find
form and sample documents here.
Important Reminders
The appellant must file the Notice of Appeal, Docketing Statement, and Motion to Proceed in forma pauperis,
or pay the cost deposit, in the trial court.
The parties must file just about everything after that with the clerk of courts for
the county in which the appeal originated (there are several specific
motions that are filed with the trial court, like a motion to prepare a
transcript of proceedings at state's expense).
For example, if a
party appeals from a decision of the Stow Municipal Court, the appellant
must file the Notice of
Appeal, Docketing Statement, and Motion to Proceed in forma pauperis in the Stow Municipal Court clerk's office. If a party
later wants to file a motion, for example, asking for additional time to
file a brief, that motion must be filed in the Summit County Clerk of
Courts, Appellate Division. If the appeal is from the Avon Lake
Municipal Court in Lorain County, however, appellate court pleadings would
need to be filed in the Lorain County Clerk of Courts. You can find
the addresses of the Clerks' offices here.
A party filing any document after the Notice of Appeal and Docketing Statement
(both of which are served by the clerk of courts) must serve the document on all
parties to the appeal and must include proof of service in the
pleading. App.R. 13(D). If there is no proof of service,
the Court of Appeals cannot consider the document.
The appellant must pay the cost deposit at the time
the Notice of Appeal is filed. If the appellant cannot afford the
cost deposit, the appellant may file a motion to proceed in forma
pauperis, which asks this Court to waive the filing of the cost deposit.
The motion must have an affidavit of indigence attached to it and the
affidavit must be notarized. If the motion is granted, the
appellant does not have to pay the cost deposit. If the Court
grants the motion, this only means that the cost deposit does not have
to be paid when the appeal is started, but one or both parties will
still be liable to pay the costs of the appeal at the end of the case.
Local Rule 2(C).
Finally, if you do not file a required document, make
a mistake in how you prepare a document, or do not pay the cost
deposit or ask for the deposit to be waived, the Court of Appeals will
file an order telling you what the problem is and give you a deadline to correct
it. If you do not respond to the order,
your appeal may be dismissed.
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