Colorado Divorce Appeal: What to Know

Judges and magistrates are two different court officials, and the processes to make a divorce appeal to them are drastically different. Magistrates operate under the supervision of district court judges. There are limitations on what types of hearings they can preside over, as well as limitations on actions they can take, such as reviewing a previous order that has been made. When it comes to appeals, trying to overturn a magistrate’s decision requires quick action. Depending on whether you were present for the magistrate’s ruling or not you will have only 14”“21 days to appeal their decision. On top of that, you must file your brief (the document that explains what you are appealing and why), along with your petition for review. The transcript of the proceeding is necessary in nearly every case, otherwise, the district court judge who reviews the magistrate’s decision has to assume that the testimony and evidence taken at the hearing supported the magistrate’s decision. This is a lot to do in only two to three weeks, and oftentimes an extension of time is necessary to accomplish it. If you do not review the decision of the magistrate, you will never be able to file an appeal with the Court of Appeals. What this means is that if you were in front of a magistrate it is imperative that you seek legal counsel immediately if you even think you might want to appeal the decision.

Appeals from judge’s decisions present more forgiving timelines for appeals, but it still is important to reach out to an attorney immediately for the following reasons. First, you may only appeal an issue that was brought to the judge’s attention at the trial. Sometimes, judges make errors in their rulings that no one had an opportunity to challenge at the hearing. This means that if you want to bring this up on appeal, you’ll need to file a post-trial motion to reconsider the ruling based on these new errors. You must file this motion within 14 days of the judge’s ruling, making it critical that you seek legal counsel immediately. Aside from the deadline for post-trial motions, appeals from a district court judge’s ruling must be brought within 49 days. Even better is that the party only needs to file their notice of appeal which lists the issues that the party plans to raise in their appellate brief. This increased time makes it easier for attorneys to gather information and evaluate a case to determine if an appeal is a viable option. That being said, the sooner an attorney can review a case the better.