What is an Appeal en banc?

An appeal en banc is an appeal to an appellate court to have all of the Court’s judges hear a case and decide it together. Here in Pennsylvania, appeals en banc are rarely granted, but can be based on a number of factors.

Bringing an Appeal

In bringing an appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court or the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, you are typically assigned to a three-judge panel for that court. This means that 3 of the 7 Commonwealth judges or 3 of the 15 Superior Court judges would hear the appeal. They make the decision amongst themselves and write an opinion. The other judges of the court have no interaction on the case and are usually not even aware of the case’s existence.

If you are unhappy with the decision of the panel, then you have the option, in fourteen days, to ask the Superior Court or Commonwealth Court to hear the case en banc. This means that you are asking the entire court to hear the case. As you might imagine, the reason the court divides up its appeals with panels is because there are many appeals, and they don’t want to hear all of them. Accordingly, if you ask the court to hear the appeal en banc, you’re asking for something unusual and rare. You’ll need to justify why the entire court should hear the appeal in a written request. The request will have to be compelling.

Why request an appeal en banc?

A few reasons why the entire court may wish to hear the appeal include:

• that it is a novel area of law,
• that the decision the panel made contradicts a prior precedent, or
• because it is a complex issue that deserves additional attention.

Appeals en banc are rarely granted, and when they are you’ll need to make sure any arguments you make have already been preserved in your prior argument to the court.

Because most requests to hear the case en banc are not granted, your final appeal would be to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. There are rare cases where you would also bring an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States on a federal issue.

Contact the Appellate Attorneys at Cornerstone Law Firm.

If you’re bringing an appeal in Pennsylvania, it is best to have the help of attorneys who can help you through the appellant system and know their way around it. If you have an appeal, call the attorneys at the Cornerstone Law Firm and see how we can help you. If you’re an attorney bringing in an appeal, we are also happy to be consulting council and assist you through the process. Call Cornerstone Law Firm today for a consultation.