By
Jonathan Ekperusi
Abstract
Appellate litigation provides a legal practitioner with the opportunity to contribute to the development of the law by questioning precedents and testing the decisions of lower courts on appeal before superior courts in the hierarchy. While trial litigation may provide some form of fulfillment, it is only legal practitioners engaged in appellate litigation who will have their names etched in the Law Reports as decisions of appellate courts are regularly reported. To maximize the opportunities provided by appellate litigation, a legal practitioner engaged in appellate litigation in Nigeria must make the requisite sacrifice to master the rudiments of appellate litigation, beginning with a proper understanding of the appeal process, followed by an understanding of how to draft a valid notice of appeal and how to formulate issues for determination from the grounds of appeal. The appellate litigation lawyer must understand when to seek leave to appeal, when to seek the trinity prayers, and how to properly draft the reliefs in those prayers. The appellate litigation lawyer should understand the rules relating to proliferation of issues, the difference between the omnibus ground of appeal in civil and criminal appeals and how a respondent’s notice is different from a cross-appeal.