“I’ll win on appeal.”

Then there is the myth of the appeal. Now I’m all for defendant’s being informed of their rights, but perhaps the most deceiving information a defendant is given is the one that comes right after the Defendant has pled and been sentenced. That’s when he’s told, “you have thirty days to appeal your sentence.” He doesn’t know what, “for collateral purposes only” means. He doesn’t understand that for the most part these are mere obligatory words. That the chances of winning an appeal after a plea and sentence are highly unlikely to say the least. No, he like just about every other client is under the long-standing myth that he can appeal and he will win his appeal, whether he lost at trial or pled.

The basis in truth here of course is that a small number of people do win their appeals, and sometimes appeals are even won when the appellate attorney has given up on winning by filing an Andersbrief.132 For those unfamiliar with the term, an Anders brief is an appellate brief filed in cases where appellate counsel believes that there is no basis for an appeal. That an appeal in fact would be frivolous. An Anders brief is basically code for, “nothing here.”

The Appellate court Judges or rather their Law clerks then review the record on appeal to confirm that there is in fact, “nothing there.” But what if there is something there. What if appellate counsel missed something or was too lazy to even look for it because he didn’t feel like writing an appeal. Now, a lot can be said for getting other people, especially Appellate Judges and or their Law clerks to do your work.  But if they find something worth overturning on appeal, then shouldn’t the attorney who submitted the Anders brief be billed costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.