How to Appeal a Charge If You've Been Wrongly Accused of Invasion of Privacy

If you have been wrongfully accused of invasion of privacy, you still have options--even if you are convicted. You are allowed to appeal the verdict, which is not another trial, but rather a formal challenge to an official decision to see if you've been wrongfully accused. If you've been convicted on a charge of invasion of privacy and have been wrongfully accused, an appeal is your next step.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Lawyer specializing in invasion of privacy appeals

Appeal a Charge If You've Been Wrongly Accused of Invasion of Privacy

1. Obtain a lawyer. The law is hugely specialized, and so you may even want to change lawyers from the original trial. Use an attorney search engine like FindLaw (see Resources below) to find an attorney who specializes in invasion of privacy cases and, if possible, appeals thereof.
2. Ask your lawyer, first and foremost, if he or she thinks an appeal is possible, and what manner of appeal you will be filing. The appeal will be filed on specific grounds--make sure you know what grounds your lawyer will be citing.
3. Know that the Appellate Court does not reevaluate the evidence or hear new evidence. Its decision is based solely on the trial court records, and if you were wrongfully accused, you must hope exonerating evidence is in those records.
4. Understand how your appeal will work and what it will entail. You can ask your lawyer about this, in addition to the proper, legal grounds on which you may file for an appeal. Trials with flaws large or small, or those that are for some reason not up to the letter of the law, have good chances of getting heard and overturned.

Tips & Warnings

• If you feel that, for one reason or another, your attorney in the initial trial misrepresented you, that can be the basis for your appeal. Find a more specialized lawyer to aid you with this process.
• If you do not know how to get a lawyer, there are dozens of websites that can help you. A quick search on FindLaw can yield many results but be warned: many of the websites appear to be non-profit databases but are actually single-firm advertisements.
• Be involved in the process. Ask your lawyer exactly what is happening with your case whenever you do not know. The more involved you are with the process, the easier it will be to provide the correct information.
• You may not appeal the case if you pled guilty to an invasion of privacy charge at the beginning of the trial.