Experienced Ohio Appellate Lawyer for Civil and Criminal Appeals

The Sweeney firm is dedicated to providing clients with the highest caliber legal representation in all phases of litigation, including appeals. Appeals and related appellate issues are often a critical part of the litigation process in both civil and criminal matters.

Sweeney was a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals and has extensive experience, over nearly thirty years of law practice, with writing and arguing appeals in federal and state appellate courts. The firm’s appellate experience includes appeals to higher courts of adverse lower court rulings, and the defense of lower court victories that have been appealed to higher courts.

Many issues can arise in an appeal, including, for example, issues concerning:

Sufficiency of the evidence
Improperly admitted evidence
Improper admission or use of expert testimony
Procedural errors
Faulty jury instructions
In criminal appeals, issues concerning misconduct by the prosecutor
In criminal appeals, issues concerning mistakes by trial counsel
In federal criminal appeals, issues concerning application of the federal Sentencing Guidelines

Sweeney’s appellate practice has included a wide range of commercial, business, and civil matters, such as appeals following trial-court judgments in cases involving contracts, employment, property rights, civil rights, First Amendment, and many other substantive areas of law.

As for criminal appeals, Sweeney has extensive experience in death penalty litigation and in representing clients in their state and federal criminal appeals and related post-conviction criminal litigation. Sweeney’s practice in this area has included challenges to felony convictions of all levels, and especially the most serious felonies such as homicide offenses, sexual offenses, child pornography offenses, fraud offenses, white collar offenses, and bribery/corruption offenses.

A representative sampling of reported criminal appellate decisions in which Sweeney has been directly involved include, among many others, the following appellate court decisions:

State v. Bates, 2005-Ohio-3411 (Ohio App. 2005) (conviction reversed)
State v. Gooden, 2007-Ohio-2371 (Ohio App. 2007) (conviction reversed)
State v. Williams, 172 Ohio App. 3d 646 (2007) (conviction reversed)
State v. Kozlosky, 195 Ohio App. 3d 343 (2011) (conviction reversed)
United States v. Richards, 508 F. App’x 444 (6th Cir. 2012) (sentencing issues)
United States v. Bakri, 505 F. App’x 462 (6th Cir. 2012)
State v. Chopak, 2012-Ohio-1537 (Ohio App. 2012) (conviction reversed in part)
United States v. Mahmud, 541 F. App’x 630 (6th Cir. 2013)
State v. Marshall, 2015-Ohio-2511 (Ohio App. 2015)
Gipson v. Sheldon, 659 F. App’x 871 (6th Cir. 2016)
State v. Franks, 2016-Ohio-5241 (Ohio App. 2016)
United States v. Thompson, 690 F. App’x 302 (6th Cir. 2017)
State v. Thomas, 2017-Ohio-8011 (Ohio Supreme Ct. Oct. 4, 2017) (conviction reversed)

The firm has the experience and legal knowledge needed to handle briefing and oral arguments before all Ohio appellate courts, the Ohio Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Contact a committed appellate lawyer in Ohio

For skilled help with an appeal, call Law Office of Timothy Farrell Sweeney at 216-241-5003 or contact the firm online to schedule a consultation at the firm’s Cleveland office.