Nh Supreme Court Forms

Article III of the Constitution gives the Supreme Court broad authority to review questions of federal law, but the court's power to supervise state courts has been limited since the Judiciary Act of 1789, which made clear that the Supreme Court cannot review state court judgments on questions of purely state law.

You cannot appeal a court decision simply because you are unhappy with the outcome; you must have a legal ground to file the appeal. If the judge in your case made a mistake or abused his/her discretion, then you might have grounds to file an appeal.

How is the case decided? Appeals are decided by panels of three judges. The court of appeals does not receive additional evidence or hear witnesses; rather the judges make their decision based on the written record of the case in the trial court, the briefs submitted by the parties, and possibly oral argument.

Federal courts may overrule a state supreme court decision only when there is a federal question which springs up a federal jurisdiction.

On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in both state and federal courts.Although state supreme court rulings on matters of state law are final, rulings on matters of federal law can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The appellate court determines whether errors occurred in applying the law at the lower court level. It generally will reverse a trial court only for an error of law. Not every error of law, however, is cause for a reversal. Some are harmless errors that did not prejudice the rights of the parties to a fair trial.

Federal courts of appeals routinely handle more than 50,000 cases each year. Ten percent or fewer of those decisions are appealed to the Supreme Court, which in turn hears oral arguments in fewer than 100 cases annually.

A case can be appealed from a state supreme court to the US Supreme Court when there is a preserved federal question involved. A "preserved federal question" means the case raises issues about the US Constitution, federal law, or a US treaty at each step of the judicial process -- from trial through appeals.