Cervone has also developed a practice handling family law appellate cases. “Because this is the area I practice in, I can parcel out all the intricacies of a family law case and peel back all the layers of the onion. I have an insight that other family law attorneys don’t have, especially the attorneys who dabble in family law while working in other areas of law.”

According to Cervone, in family law, you need to know enough about the other areas of law to know when you need to pull another lawyer into the case. Family law deals not only with child issues but with various financial issues, mental health issues, estate planning issues, criminal issues, business issues, real estate issues, etc. “Being an appellate attorney helps to know all the intricacies to handle all aspects of the divorce matter.”

The most common reasons for family law appeals are jurisdictional, distribution of assets, and procedural errors. “The hard ones to win on appeal are usually children’s issues where the court has a lot of discretion.”

“Sometimes I will co-counsel with trial attorneys to set the matter up to hopefully not have to appeal, but if they do have to appeal, I will take over.” She urges family attorneys to bring her in on a case as soon as it appears it may go to an appeal.  She has yet to appeal her own cases, handling appeals based on referrals from other attorneys. She has a few attorneys who she works with on possible appeals as well as helping with other cases. Her goal is to advise early on in the matter to prevent the need for an appeal. She has also helped speak to clients with other attorneys to work on settlements and discuss the likelihood of success on appeal.

“My main thought is, how is this going to look on appeal? My pretrial statements will be strong, my opening and closing arguments, cross-examination, and direct examination. All my exhibits are based on what will happen if it goes in front of an appellate court,” explained Cervone. “And usually, because of that, I feel that the judges then have a better picture, and they have a clear way to make a ruling. I’m not saying I win everything because it’s not always about winning. It’s about whether the judge has the information they need to make the correct decision. And in family law, it is rare that there is a winner and a loser. The best ruling is fair and balanced.”