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THREAD: Wade Robson Appeal Process - Judges and Procedures



A panel of three (out of four) California appellate judges of the 2nd district, division 8, will be reviewing the merits of Wade's appeal to ultimately affirm or reverse the original judge's dismissal.



Details inside.

With the appellate process, judges will review the full case including all exhibits that were part of the case-in-chief.



No new evidence can be entered during the appeals process. The decision is whether Judge Beckloff erred by dismissing the case based on the known facts & law.

To be successful in the appeals process, the appellant (Wade) needs to convince at least two out of three of the judges that Beckloff acted against well-established law.



The original dismissal will stand if at least 2 judges determine Beckloff did not act improperly in ruling.

The choice of judges will be randomized but will be three of the following four judges, summaries and notes will follow:



* Presiding - Tricia A. Bigelow ('08)

* Associate - Elizabeth A. Grimes ('10)

* Associate - Maria E. Stratton ('18)

* Associate - John Shepard Wiley Jr. ('18)

Presiding Justice: Tricia A. Bigelow (2008+)



Former LA Deputy DA/AG (86-95)



Co-authored extensive written materials on CA sex crime law.



Recently affirmed high sanctions against school due to "frivolous appeal...no reasonable attorney could have believed an appeal had merit."

Associate Justice: Elizabeth A. Grimes (2010+)



Former longtime partner of private litigation firm (1980+).



Specialty: Business disputes and negligence claims.



Aptly dismissed a case where plaintiff claimed injury w/out any evidence after defense presented contradictory facts.

Associate Justice Maria E. Stratton (2018+)



Former law clerk, public defender, attorney & judge.



Specialty: General criminal/civil litigation; mental health.



Worked for many years w/ Dean Gits including as public defender; Gits defended the innocent in McMartin sex abuse hoax.

Associate Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr. (2018+)



Former supreme court clerk, law professor, prosecutor, circuit judge.



As a professor in the 1990s, commented to media about false convictions based on erroneous testimony/witnesses, prosecution theatrics and DNA exonerations.

Note that while the tidbits of information about each judge may be interesting, they must all conform to strictly established case law when evaluating each individual appeal.



Personal opinions & experiences generally have no merit to the legal decision they ultimately arrive at.

After the judges have reviewed the briefs, a hearing for oral arguments will be set (unless waived).



Both appeals (James+Wade) have been combined for oral arguments. Each side has a short time to answer ?s from judges.



Judges usually have their opinions in mind by this point.

While some California districts offer online audio or visual streams of oral arguments, the second district does not.



However, oral arguments can be attended by the public & audio recorded copies can be requested for a $40 fee.



No court transcripts are made for oral arguments.

Oral arguments can, at times, help foreshadow each judge's ultimate ruling based on their demeanor and questions asked of each side.



Since the judges will have been fully briefed before oral arguments, their questions often align w/ trying to solidify their existing viewpoint.

The final decision will be released as a singular opinion written by one of the elected judges. The other judges will concur or dissent.



In the majority of cases, all three judges share the same opinion. If one judge disagrees, he or she can optionally write a dissent excerpt.





The majority of opinions are unpublished. Appellate decisions are always released to the public the day they are filed at courts.ca.gov/opinions.htm . They can be "published" or "unpublished", which determines whether or not they are certified for citation in other court cases.The majority of opinions are unpublished.

The panel of judges (division 8) have released 66 opinions over the last two months; 16 published.



* Bigelow - 52 Opinions

* Wiley - 50 Opinions

* Stratton - 49 Opinions

* Grimes - 45 Opinions



AFFIRMED: 43

AFFIRMED+REMANDED: 12

REVERSED: 8

DISMISSED: 3



Less than 15% reversed.

In some cases the judges ask to remand portions back to trial court, while still affirming the ruling & denying the appeal. The remanded portions are generally not substantial in the scope of the overall case and trial/appellate rulings.



Very rarely do appeals lead to reversals.

It is not uncommon for the judges to ask failed appellants to pay for expenses incurred by respondents.



If Wade's petition is denied, they may end up owing even more money to the estate based on all additional expenses accumulated since December 2017 on top of existing debts.

The average length of an appellate opinion from these four judges is 15 pages, but they can be as brief as two pages or as long as 50+ pages to cover all of the arguments.



The 66 opinions given in two months by these appointed judges span 1,022 pages in total.

After the opinion, the losing side has 3 options:



1.) Accept ruling and halt future appeals.

2.) File for en banc hearing (all judges).

3.) File petition for SCOTUS.



Options 2-3 are nearly impossible to have honored; less than 1-2% of all cases are accepted for those actions.

There is no fixed timeline for when an appeal is decided. A reasonable estimate is anywhere from 3-10 months after receiving all of the briefs.



If oral arguments are held, generally the opinion will be filed soon thereafter (3-6 weeks) but this too is entirely variable.

In Summary: To win the appeal Wade's side has to convince at least two of the three appellate judges—based strictly on law and other case examples—that the trial court was wrong in dismissing their case.



Statistically there is < 15% chance of the judges reversing a court ruling.

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