Discretionary Appeal v Appeals As Of Right

An appeal seeks to have a lower court’s decision reviewed by a court of higher authority. The higher court may either affirm or reverse a lower court’s decision after reviewing it.

There are several different kinds of appeals, depending on the circumstances and the procedure involved with the case being appealed.

Appeals are categorized as either an appeal “as of right” or a “discretionary” appeal, regardless of whether they evolved from civil trials or criminal trials. In general, the preliminary appeal from the decision of a trial court is at all times an appeal “as of right.”
Most state laws mandate that an appeals court hear any appeal coming directly from a trial court’s decision. To have an appeal granted, the party seeking it must file a petition to appeal or other document in the proper court. However, when the appeal is “as of right”, this primary step taken by the party is to notify the court that he or she will be filing the appeal, as opposed to filing a petition requesting an appeal.
Any appeal from the trial court’s decision is considered as an “appeal of right” in many states, even in cases where the appeal won’t be addressing the whole case, but only a small issue in the case. Moreover, both the plaintiff and the defendant in the case may appeal one or more issues “as of right.”
A discretionary appeal is the opposite of an appeal “as of right”. The parties to the case, either the plaintiff or the defendant, do not possess a legal entitlement to a discretionary appeal. Instead, it is the appeals court that decides whether to permit the party to bring its case to the appeals court.
In the majority of states in the U.S., appeals to the state’s highest courts are almost always discretionary, as well as appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can select and decide which cases it will hear every year. A discretionary appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is made by filing a writ of certiorari, or “cert.”