Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Steve Palmer here. LawyerTalkPodcast.com check us out. Leave a question. Leave a comment. Today I'm going to cover another episode of What's The Appeal? Now, what's the Appeal? Well, it's a series I do about appellate work. And believe it or not, when we, when we created this series, we thought, I thought for sure this would be like boring paint, watching paint dry type of stuff for people. But I'm getting a lot of feedback on it. People tend to, they like it and the numbers are showing it.

Steve Palmer [00:00:25]:

So I'm going to keep doing it. What's the appeal? And, and today I'm going to talk about particularly the Ohio Supreme Court. But I think this in general will be relevant to various state supreme courts. And for those who have followed this series, I always talk about the appellate ladder. The first step on the ladder is you've just been convicted at trial. Then you go to a direct appeal. And generally over the direct appeal courts, you have the highest court in the land. In Ohio, we call that the Ohio Supreme Court.

Steve Palmer [00:00:51]:

I know New York has some finicky ways of, of classifying these things, but anyway, in Ohio, it's the Ohio Supreme Court. And you know, I have clients all the time and say, how do I get to the Ohio Supreme Court or what's going on? And I try to explain it to them. And it has to be broken down this way. First of all, the highest court in the land, in Ohio particularly, and the U.S. supreme Court for that matter, you can't just go there. You can't just go and say, look at my case. I want you to decide my case. You have to ask them to review it.

Steve Palmer [00:01:18]:

And, and in legal terms, we call this discretionary review, which is a fancy way of saying we're asking the highest court in the land to take a peek and say, all right, we don't like, not just the outcome of the case, but there's a rule of law. There's something that's going on here that has a broader applicability. In Ohio, we file something called a memorandum in support of jurisdiction. In the US Supreme Court, we call that a petition for certior ori law. Look it up. It's a hard word to spell, but they're both doing the same thing. You're saying, look, high court, look, the most important court in the land. I think that this case is so important.

Steve Palmer [00:01:56]:

There's a rule of law, there is policy. There is something going on that is so significant that we think that you should look at it and decide it. Now the opposite of that is really what I want to focus on because the opposite of that is the courts, these high courts, are not in the business of error correction. And what I mean by error correction is there was a mistake at trial. Say, say the trial court. I'm at trial and I say, objection, Judge, this is rank hearsay. It should never come in. This person shouldn't be allowed to testify about that.

Steve Palmer [00:02:27]:

And the trial court says, overruled. I think my cousin Vinnie, that was a informed, well thought out, well presented. Objection. Overruled. All right, so you lost the objection. And you know, it's the only. You're just talking about the app or the applicability or the application of particular rule of evidence and not a broader application of the law. Usually the Ohio supreme court or the U.S.

Steve Palmer [00:02:54]:

supreme Court, they're not going to care. They're not going to care that some court at the lowest level screwed up an evidence ruling unless it's premised upon something that has broader scope. So take that same scenario. And in that same scenario I say, objection, hearsay. And by the way, Judge, this hearsay violates my client's right of confrontation. What is that? I don't get to cross examine and ask questions of the witness who actually said these things because the person who said these things isn't coming into court, isn't coming to testify. And I can't, my client can't exercise his sixth Amendment right of confrontation and cross examine this statement to expose the flaws in Turns out our US Supreme Court is interested in this issue and it has a broader scope. So I had this come up recently in an appeal I was working on where there was a confrontation or there was a hearsay objection and a confrontation argument.

Steve Palmer [00:03:53]:

Now there's some interest. Now our Ohio Supreme Court may say, hey, look, we know the US Supreme Court is looking at these types of issues. We know that there's a facet of this that has some broader applicability, that has some generalized public interest to the extent the public cares about it, but certainly broader constitutional concerns. So it's something the Ohio Supreme Court might be interested in. So in my memorandum in support of jurisdiction, I'm really outlining it from that perspective. I'm not saying, look, judge, trial court screwed up, my client got screwed and he deserves a new trial because of this. I'm saying that. But I'm saying independent of that, judges, this is a big deal because if this keeps happening, then we are going to create law that violates everybody's right of confrontation going forward.

Steve Palmer [00:04:38]:

And this is a new issue that we think you need to take a look at. And not only that, the US Supreme Court is looking at it, too. So if it's important to them, it should be important to us. So we file a memorandum in support of jurisdiction. And if the Ohio Supreme Court agrees, then we got to go to step two. And this is how you get into the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court says, yes, we agree with you on that proposition of law that you just gave us, that under these circumstances, a defendant's right of confrontation is violated. So now we want you to really file a brief.

Steve Palmer [00:05:09]:

Now we want you to really research it, put it in writing, tell us all about it, and then we're going to appear and argue it with full costume dress at the Ohio Supreme Court. And then you get a decision on it. And if you lose there, you've got options to go up to the higher courts. That's for another day, though. So anyway, what's the appeal? Well, that's a series we talk about appellate stuff. Appreciate if you listen to it. If you've got your own question about appeals or anything else, lawyertalkpodcast. Com.

Steve Palmer [00:05:34]:

Leave it in the comments, off the record, on the air till now.