Art. 920 Scope of appellate review

When you appeal a criminal case in Louisiana, the court can only look at certain problems, not everything that happened in your case. First, the court will look at any errors your lawyer specifically listed and wrote down when filing the appeal. This list is called the assignment of errors, and it tells the court exactly what you think went wrong.

Second, the court can also look at mistakes that are obvious just from looking at the case documents and court record, even if your lawyer didn't list them. These are errors so clear that a judge can spot them without having to dig through the evidence presented at trial. For example, if the paperwork shows the court charged you with the wrong crime or missed a required legal step, the appeals court can catch that on its own.

What this means for you is that appeals are limited in scope. You can't bring up just any complaint you have about your trial. Your appeal is mostly limited to the specific errors your lawyer identifies, plus any obvious mistakes visible in the court paperwork itself. This is why it matters that your lawyer carefully reviews the case and lists every possible error when filing your appeal, since problems left off the list may not get reviewed at all.