Appealing a Florida Lawsuit

Can you appeal a Florida Lawsuit When the Judge Orders Something That Was Not Requested at Trial?

Appealing a Florida lawsuit when the judge orders something that was not requested at trial. What can you do? Hello my name is John Pankauski. The trial attorneys and appellate lawyers at Pankauski Hauser handle matters throughout the State of Florida. You know, we keep recent cases and appellate court opinions in our legal research file to know what’s going on and try to stay current with the law. Now we have a file that we call “relief not requested”. What does that mean?
Well what happens if you try a case, you have a real trial in Florida for a lawsuit or piece of litigation and the judge of the trial court grant’s relief that nobody requested or make some ruling or make some order or command that nobody requested. Well, generally speaking a court is prohibited from doing that unless all the parties agree, what we say is there was a consent to try that issue let me read to you from a recent case call SCHANCK case issued April 30th 2018,
by Florida’s First District Court of Appeal. It is well settled that were a particular form of relief is not requested by the party and the matter is not tried by consent, the granting of such relief violates due process that might be overturned. Now what you have to be careful about, ask your probate litigation or trial lawyer about what you’re seeking at trial and what the other party is seeking so you have a complaint that seeks particular relief. You may or may not have a cross-claim or a counterclaim.
Know what’s being tried. Look at your trial order that setting the matter for trial and you have a clear understanding of what’s being tried and what’s not tried and if a lawyer or somebody else tries to bring up a matter that is not being tried you need to eject and get on the record otherwise you will be said to have tried that by consent.