What happens if a judge renders a wrong verdict by misinterpreting the law? There are probably numerous instances, but I'll use the one I'm most familiar with. You sue a debt collector for violating your rights, as illustrated in the linked video. There is a 12 month statute of limitations for you to sue, which extends from the most recent violation. There have been &quot;numerous&quot; violations. The judge wrongly throws out your suit because it has been more than twelve months since the first violation (but not the most recent one, as provided for by law). (See the comments to the video, not the video itself.) Suppose the ruling is incorrect on its face. What do you do to vacate or overturn it? I would guess that this might involve an appeal, although one commenter suggested a motion to reconsider. Is this a relatively routine process of pointing out the error or is it one where the judge might fight &quot;tooth and nail&quot; against having a ruling overturned even if it is obviously wrong?
You file an appeal. In federal courts, the procedure is governed by the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and the process begins with filing a notice of appeal under Rule 4. The process is fairly similar in all the state courts, as far as I know. If you've identified a problem with a ruling other than the final decision of your case, you could also file a motion for reconsideration under Rule 60 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. You would typically not use this procedure to contest the court's final judgment, as it would likely take so long to decide that your opportunity to appeal would be expired.
I have already contacted a lawyer and paid all the money I had and they didn't help me resolve anything, the guy just talked to me for a little bit. He essentially just took my $600 and no action was made. He said the best thing to do would be to wait it out because the contracts were never fulfilled by them and they can't claim my inventions etc if I am an independent contractor. To me it just sounded like a bunch of BS and not a real solution to this. You paid $600 for expert advice which told you to do nothing. You think the advice is bullshit and intend to go full steam ahead against the advice given. I'd say it is very likely that the lawyer is a better expert than you, so you should follow his advice. You are in a hole, you were told to stop digging, and you intend to continue digging. Don't. There are times where doing nothing is the best advice. In this case, you intend to accuse someone of breach of contract. That has a good chance of landing you in court. A company cannot afford to ignore such a statement. You claim the contract is void and you want to cancel it - but you can't cancel a void contract. It's void. Listen to your lawyer.
Unless you have caused loss to the customer by making the typo, the answer is no. Obviously, anyone can attempt to sue anyone. However, for the court to accept their claim/charge for processing it needs to fall in one of these buckets: They had a contract with you personally and you were in breach of it — obviously this does not apply in your situation; You committed a crime — looks like this is not the case either; You had a duty of care towards them and committed the tort of negligence. This is what the customer must be referring to — making the typo could be regarded as negligence, especially if it caused actual harm/losses to them.
If this judge is truly biased, won't the litigants be all the more glad to have a jury of their peers? You are proposing to abandon your duty to others. At trial you serve the community, not the judge. Back on scope for Law SE: If you refuse to serve on a jury, that could be a separate offense or general criminal contempt, for which you (this all depends on your jurisdiction) could get 30-90 days in jail. Edit: like several others have pointed out, I would not expect much trouble if you politely told the court that you felt you would be biased b/c of past connections. Even if the judge doesn't dismiss you, one of the litigants is likely to strike you. P.S. In most states, no one except a prosecutor (sometimes another state employee) can "take someone" to a criminal court. Individuals can only take someone to civil trial, where one cannot be sentenced, only ordered to pay a judgement.
Only if counsel challenged the point during the trial Difficult as it might be, you can’t allow the judge to be wrong during the trial without calling them on it: very, very politely. For example, there is case law that says you can’t successfully appeal because the judge was asleep through significant parts of the trial; appeals courts are clear that you have to wake them up. If you don’t then you accepted that you didn’t want the judge to hear the parts of the case they slept through, it’s your choice how you present your case. Frankly some cases are better if the judge misses half the evidence. Of course, if the error of law makes it through to the oral or written judgement then you can appeal even if you didn’t take issue with it.
He cannot be given a higher sentence because he appealed. If the appeal is unsuccessful, he will be in exactly the same legal position as if he had not appealed, aside from any legal fees an costs he may incur for the appeal. The worst that could happen to Chauvin at the end of the appeals process, is that all three convictions are upheld, which leaves him no worse off than if there had been no appeal. However, if an appeal is successful, it will probably lead to a new trial. In general, when an accused person is retried after a successful appeal, there is the possibility of a worse outcome. In this case, however, Chauvin was convicted on all counts charged, so the outcome could not get worse. If Chauvin were to appeal and get a new trial, but be convicted in a new trial, he could in theory receive a larger sentence after the second trial. But since the charges would be the same, the range of possible sentences and the sentencing guidelines would be the same. Of course, no one yet knows what sentence the judge will impose after the current conviction.
State governments (and state courts, employees, etc., as part of that government) are generally immune from lawsuits for all liability. See Governmental Tort Liability : 2017 Tennessee Code : Justia. You're really not going to be able to sue the state, the court, the prosecutor or parole officer over what you see as a negligent decision, considering the individuals' previous record or freedom while on parole, and/or whether they are charged as an adult or a minor. Most any lawyer will advise you of this. You could contact a local legal aid clinic Legal Aid/Legal Services | Tennessee Bar Association for more of an explanation and explore the possibilities.
Can a judge change a sentence? No. Once a judge has delivered the sentence the case is finished and the court no longer has jurisdiction. Can the sentence be appealed? Yes. Both the defence and the prosecution can appeal the sentence (with or without appealing the verdict). A sentence appeal will only be allowed if: The sentencing judge has made an error of law; or The sentencing judge was guided by irrelevant or extreme considerations; or The sentence was manifestly excessive (or, if the Crown appeals, manifestly inadequate). In theory, the Crown could appeal on the basis the sentence was manifestly excessive but normally the Crown will have indicated to the judge the punishment they were seeking and it would be rare for the judge to exceed that. That is, the Crown almost always wanted more than they got and may appeal if it’s “manifestly inadequate”.