North Carolina Federal Appeals Attorney
6047 Tyvola Glen Circle
Charlotte, NC 28217
704-842-3501
North Carolina Federal Appeals Team Lead
Former Deputy Chief, Appellate Division
North Carolina Federal Appeals Team Lead
Partner & Yale Graduate
North Carolina Federal Appeals Team Lead
Why consider our team for your federal appeals case?
- Our team has been involved in over 500 federal appeals cases.
- Over 50 years of combined frontline experience.
- You will work directly with a senior attorney from day one — no junior attorneys or assistants.
A conviction for a federal offense is a huge setback. However, after learning what the consequences will be during the sentencing hearing, you have the right to appeal the outcome. You have to move fast, though, as paperwork needs to be filed within 14 days.
The federal appeals attorneys at Oberheiden, P.C. strive to legally represent criminal defendants in North Carolina who have been convicted after a trial and who want to continue to challenge the charges against them. With our help, numerous defendants across the country and in North Carolina have gotten their conviction overturned or their sentence reduced.
How Appeals Fit Into the Federal Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system is a series of escalating steps that go from a suspicion that you committed a federal crime to a criminal conviction.
First, federal law enforcement agents obtain evidence of a potential legal violation. This can come from their own suspicions or from a tipster. If the subsequent investigation uncovers more incriminating evidence, prosecutors will present their case to a North Carolina grand jury. If the grand jury thinks that there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed, it will issue an indictment and you will be arrested, booked, and brought to court for your arraignment hearing. There, you will be read the charges against you, you will issue your initial plea, and a trial will be set if you plead not guilty.
This starts the pre-trial process.
Your defense lawyer and the prosecution team will investigate the case, uncover evidence, and initiate plea negotiations. If you accept a plea bargain, the penalties of your conviction will likely be reduced but you will not be able to challenge the case against you. You also generally waive your right to appeal.
If you do not plead guilty, you will go to trial and both sides will present their cases. If the jury returns a guilty verdict, the judge will schedule a sentencing hearing, during which he or she will impose the sentence of your conviction.
At this point, you can appeal.
Put our highly experienced team on your side
Dr. Nick Oberheiden
Founder
Attorney-at-Law
Lynette S. Byrd
Former DOJ Trial Attorney
Partner
Brian J. Kuester
Former U.S. Attorney
Hon. Kevin McCarthy
55th Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives (ret.)
Government Consultant
Mike Pompeo
Of Counsel
Former U.S. Secretary of State
John W. Sellers
Former Senior DOJ Trial Attorney
Linda Julin McNamara
Federal Appeals Attorney
Nicholas B. Johnson
Former Prosecutor
Roger Bach
Former Special Agent (DOJ)
Chris J. Quick
Former Special Agent (FBI & IRS-CI)
Michael S. Koslow
Former Supervisory Special Agent (DOD-OIG)
Ray Yuen
Former Supervisory Special Agent (FBI)
What to Expect During an Appeal
Many criminal defendants think that appealing the outcome of their trial will mean that they get another trial in a different court, but that is not the case. If it were, then all convictions would get appealed and the district court’s trial would be pointless.
Instead, appeals cases are very subdued affairs without the drama that is inherent in a criminal trial.
After submitting paperwork with the trial court, the record of your trial will be forwarded to the appellate court with jurisdiction to hear your case. Your North Carolina federal appeals lawyer will then isolate a legal error or other mistake that was made during the trial. This will serve as your grounds for appeal.
The entire appeal is then a claim that this mistake, wrong decision, or oversight altered the outcome of your case and led to your conviction or to an excessive sentence.
Your appeals attorney will write a legal brief – a document dozens of pages long – that describes what happened during the trial that went wrong, analyzes why it was wrong, explains how it affected the outcome of your case, and urges the appeals judges to take action. Meanwhile, the prosecutor will be writing their own legal brief that argues that there was no mistake made during the trial or that, if there was one, it was frivolous.
If the appeals judges have questions about the arguments being made, they will schedule an oral argument to ask pointed questions to the attorneys presenting their case.
The appellate court will then issue a ruling. If it affirms your conviction and sentence, your attorney can request a rehearing with a larger panel of judges or can petition the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. If the appeals court overrules the trial court, it will likely remand the case back to the district court to resolve the issues. This may lead to a new trial.
Rapid Deadlines to Meet to Start an Appeal
Unfortunately, while you have a right to appeal your conviction, your sentence, or both, you have to affirmatively invoke that right. You invoke your right to appeal by filing a Notice of Appeal with the district court that held your trial. This has to be filed within 14 days of your sentence or conviction.
While the timeframe is very short, your Notice of Appeal does not need to state the grounds for your appeal. The Notice just initiates the appeals process, makes the district court forward the record of trial to the appeals court, and notifies the prosecutors that your case is not over.
The Grounds You Choose for Your Appeal Are Extremely Important
The reason underlying your appeal is extremely important. Choosing the most powerful justification for getting an appellate court to review your conviction can make or break your case. A couple of potential grounds for appealing a criminal conviction are:
- The judge abused his or her discretion while moving the case forward
- The judge misapplied the law
- Your case hinges on an unsettled or ambiguous point of law
- There is no way that the jury could arrive at a guilty verdict based on the evidence presented
Speaking with an experienced North Carolina federal appeals attorney as soon as possible can give the time needed to make the best decisions available.
Federal Courts in North Carolina
Federal charges are heard by federal courts. There are three tiers:
- District courts
- Circuit courts
- The Supreme Court of the United States
In North Carolina, there are three district courts:
- Western District
- Middle District
- Eastern District
This is where your trial will be held. It is also where all of the court proceedings between your trial and your arraignment will take place.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina has courthouses in Charlotte (401 West Trade Street), Asheville (100 Otis Street), and Statesville (200 West Broad Street).
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina has courthouses in Greensboro (324 West Market Street), Winston-Salem (251 North Main Street), and in Durham (323 East Chapel Hill Street).
Finally, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has courthouses in six cities:
- Elizabeth City (306 East Main Street)
- Fayetteville (301 Green Street)
- Greenville (201 South Evans Street)
- New Bern (413 Middle Street)
- Raleigh (310 New Bern Avenue)
- Wilmington (1003 South 17th Street)
All of these district courts are within the jurisdiction of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fourth Circuit covers all of North Carolina, as well as South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. It is located in the Lewis F. Powell Jr. Courthouse in Richmond, Virginia, at 1100 East Main Street.
Frequently Asked Questions About Oberheiden, P.C. and the Appeals Process in North Carolina
Do I Need North Carolina Federal Appeal Attorneys?
You should absolutely be legally represented by an attorney for your appeal. Representing yourself on appeal is going to be much more difficult than doing it at trial because the trial focuses on establishing what happened, while the appeal focuses on nuanced issues of the law.
While you can use the attorney who represented you during trial, the skill sets needed for the trial and for an appeal are very different. If your trial lawyer is not accustomed to handling appeals then you should strongly consider a North Carolina federal appeals lawyer who focuses his or her practice on appellate cases.
Does Oberheiden, P.C. Do Both Trials and Appeals?
Oberheiden, P.C. has teams of both trial lawyers and North Carolina federal appeal lawyers. This makes our firm especially attractive to federal defendants whose cases fall in legally gray areas. These cases are frequently appealed. Our trial defense team can represent you in North Carolina’s district courts while keeping our appeals team apprised of the case’s developments. Should the trial not go your way, our appeals team will be intimately familiar with the details of the case. Additionally, our trial attorneys will have preserved the best grounds for appeal, significantly strengthening your appeals case.
What Sets Oberheiden, P.C. Apart from Other North Carolina Firms?
All of our attorneys are senior level lawyers. They have extensive experience handling criminal charges on behalf of suspects and criminal defendants. Many of them only came to Oberheiden, P.C. after long careers in some of the law enforcement agencies that are likely prosecuting your case, such as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Even better, our firm focuses its practice in federal court, rather than North Carolina state court. Most other criminal defense firms do the opposite. This means that we are far more accustomed to going up against the full power of the federal government than other firms in the area.
Why Don’t You Call Your Appeals Team the Best in North Carolina?
Because it would mean far more if it came from our past and former clients. Many of them have left solid testimonials about our work online.
The Federal Appeals Lawyers at Oberheiden, P.C. Handle a Wide Variety of Cases in the Fourth Circuit
A North Carolina federal appeals attorney at Oberheiden, P.C. has handled an assortment of criminal cases on appeal in North Carolina before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Just a few examples include:
If you have been convicted for a federal offense in North Carolina, contact us online or call Oberheiden, P.C. at (888) 680-1745 immediately so we can file the necessary paperwork and start the appeals process.
