On Sept 20th an order was signed by an Adams County judge. At the hearing Judge Tow stated that any appeals should be made within 30 days and that evidence would not be kept after the 30 days. On Nov 4th my ex filed an appeals with the Denver Appeals Court. He is representing himself. He listed 12 items stating the courts erred in it's decisions. There was no abuse of discretion or laws violated; my ex is simply not happy with the decision. Do I need to file a response? Has the deadline for appealing expired? How do I respond? What can I anticipate with this appeal? Will there be another hearing? I simply want peace for the situation, myself & our children and this recent filing is unsettling. Unsure if it even has validity. Thank you for any and all advice!!
Understand that appeals are extremely difficult and technical to handle. Most attorneys don't handle appeals and there are attorneys in this state who exclusively handle appeals who are on regularly. I would use the Find a Lawyer option on to find an Appeals attorney. It would be way to complicated, frustrating and time consuming to do it on your own, regardless of your level of experience and intellect.
The Court of Appeals will generally take care of determining whether the appeal is timely and will likely take care of dismissing the case if it was not filed timely and the appellant cannot get an extension. The first major thing you will be responsible for is to file a Response Brief once the other party has filed their Opening Brief.
Appellate work is very complex and if the issues are important it would be a good idea to at least have a consultation with an experienced family law attorney who has handled appeals.
I don't know why your judge would say appeals must be filed within 30 days, since that is just wrong. An appeal of a decision by a District Court Judge must be filed within 49 days from the date of the written order being appealed. If he has filed a Notice of Appeal with the Colorado (not Denver) Court of Appeals, the Clerk of that Court will eventually notify all parties when their briefs are due. In the meantime, you have a right to designate additional issues for appeal, your Ex must designate the record on appeal, and you have the right to have additional portions of the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals. There are deadlines for all of these actions. You either need to read the Colorado Appellate Rules yourself or consult with an attorney. This is much too complex a matter to go through in a message forum like .
It is possible that Judge Tow was speaking of reconsideration, not an appeal, but I would need to examine the order. If your ex has filed an appeal with the Colorado Court of Appeals, you have deadlines coming up. I would be happy to speak with you regarding this matter, as I do handle family law appeals. Please feel free to contact me at 303-534-4317.
