Fourth DCA Case: Are Sanctions from Palm Beach Probate Court Appealable?

Have you been found in contempt of court in a West Palm Beach    probate matter? Do you want to appeal that order and avoid paying sanctions? Did you know that in order to appeal an order in West Palm Beach probate court you will have to preserve the record on appeal. Was there a court reporter present? If not you may have lost your right to get your appeal heard in Court. Take a look at what happens in this Fourth District Court of Appeals case where the attorney failed to preserve the record.

Palm Beach Sanctions

• Palm Beach judges do not like it when you fail to listen to them.
• Do you know what discipline a judge can lay down in the way of sanctions?
• A judge can strike your pleadings, prevent you from offering defenses and even offer adefault judgment.
• One very common sanction is making one side pay the other’s attorney’ fees.

Palm Beach Appeal

• So what happens if you get sanctions that you do not deserve?
• This happens more than you think when one party is able to misconstrue the other party’s actions to a judge.
• You may find some problems with the non-final order rule that says you cannot appeal a non-final order.
• More importantly you need to make sure you save the order on appeal.
• What happens when you don’t, you may be out of luck.
• Take a look what happened to these guys in this Fourth District Court of Appeal case.

Knox v. PPC

• The appellants in the instant case got some very harsh sanctions entered against them.
• The court found the appellant was in contempt of court and ordered attorney’s fees as a sanction.
• On appeal the court noted two things, the present order was non-final so as a matter of law it was non-appealable but furthermore, they had failed to preserve the issue on appeal.
• Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know you have to save the record for appeal!

Want to learn more?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.