What are the decisions that an appellate judge panel can make / what options do they have?
• The appeals court may AFFIRM the lower court’s order (meaning that the decision of the lower court will stand). • If the appellate court finds that the decision of the lower court was erroneous, it will either REVERSE or REVERSE AND REMAND the lower court decision. Note that in some cases, the appellate judges may rule that the mistake was a harmless error – that it did not affect the outcome of the case / would not have made a difference. With an error like this, the original decision still stands.
