Court Procedures / Evidence / Service

In general, a person may have a couple of options to explore when s/he is dissatisfied with a judge’s order. First, in some situations, if a judge failed to take into account certain pieces of evidence, it may be possible to file some sort of legal motion to reconsider or reexamine certain evidence. If a judge misunderstood the law or didn’t properly apply the law, it may be possible in some situations to file some sort of motion to re-argue a certain point of law. We have some information about motions for reconsideration on our website. A lawyer [HYPERLINK] can advise you if this is possible in your situation.

Another possible avenue, if the judge made an error of law, could be to appeal the court order. We have some basic information on our website about filing appeals. However, again, this is often only possible in specific circumstances and a lawyer who handles appeals may be the best type of attorney to consider your case and advise you. We link to some national appeals organizations on our website or you may find an appellate lawyer at the prior link I gave you.

If there is no possibility to appeal the order or to ask the judge to reconsider certain facts/evidence, then perhaps a person may be able to file to modify the order in the future but only if there is a substantial change in circumstances since the order was issued. Generally, once the judge issues an order, that order is the controlling order until it is modified (changed). You can read more about modifying a custody order in your state on our website. [HYPERLINK TO QU IN CUSTODY SECTION (AFTER AN ORDER IS ISSUED SECTION) ABOUT MODIFYING A CUSTODY ORDER]