HAVE YOU HEARD OF APPEALING COURT CASE ?.

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When Bakasimba got a bigger house, he reached out to his best friend Selulu who is a carpenter to make chairs for him. Selulu told him to make it easy and quick; he should send him 18 million, and within a week, he would have his chairs ready. Bakasimba sent money to Selulu’s account immediately.

Every time Bakasimba asks Selulu for his chairs, he tells him his snake print material is being imported from China or tells him there is no network as he has gone for a burial. Bakasimba got tired of the lies and reported the matter to court. When in court, Selulu told the court that the 18 million which was sent to his personal account was a thank you gift for being a friend and not chairs.

The court ruled in favour of Bakasimba and told Selulu to pay back the 18 million and 10 million for wasting Bakasimba's time. Selulu is now worried as he did not think it would get this serious.

His friend, a lawyer, has advised him to appeal the court's decision.

WHAT IS AN APPEAL?

When a matter is taken to court and you are not happy with the decision of the court, you have a right to take it to a higher court. This is known as an appeal. An appeal is made after the court has decided on a case and given its judgement. However, you cannot appeal if the case is still in court and you are If it is a criminal case, you have to appeal within 14 days. For ] civil matters like in Selulus, however, you have 30 days within which to make an appeal.

Any person who has been a party to the case in court can appeal the judgement. If you were not part of the case in court, you cannot claim to be an angry bystander; therefore, you want to appeal the court decision because you are unhappy. You have a right to appeal the whole judgement or the parts of it that you are not happy with. 

 

The party to the case that is not happy with the court's decision will file in the court they intend to go to, a Notice of Motion (a written request to court) and a Memorandum of Appeal (this contains the reasons or grounds of your appeal).

The memorandum of appeal is then served on the other party to the case (known as the respondent). This is so that they are aware and are in a position to put in a response. A date will then be set when the appeal will be listened to.

 

One cannot keep appealing once they get a decision that makes them happy because it is a right. The law limits the right to appeal to three times. After the third appeal, the decision is final.

Source: BarefootLawyers.