ABA Family Legal Guide

How the Legal System Works

The Civil Trial: Step by Step

Procedures After Trial

What recourse is there for the party who loses at the intermediate appellate level?

The party can seek review in the highest court in the system. In the federal system that court is the Supreme Court of the United States . In addition to the decisions of the U.S. courts of appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court has the jurisdiction, but not the obligation, to review the final decisions of the highest state courts (or even of lower state courts if the party was unable to secure additional review within the state courts) so long as the case is the sort of case described in Article III of the U.S. Constitution and was not decided on "adequate and independent state grounds." When the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a case, as it does in the vast majority of cases, the decision of the lower federal or state court remains the final decision.