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Understanding How Much Time of a Prison Sentence Must Be Served in Louisiana

This is the question every client asks: “How much time will I have to serve in jail?” The answer is simple, “it depends!

There are many factors to take into consideration, including:

  1. When was the crime committed, and what was the law at the time?
  2. What type of law or crime was broken? (crime of violence, sex crime, property crime, etc.)
  3. How much credit for time served will apply to your case?
  4. Are your sentence(s) consecutive or concurrent?
  5. Will you enroll in and complete “intensive incarceration programs” while incarcerated? (such as re-entry, drug rehab, etc.)
  6. Where will you serve your time, and do they offer treatment programs?

Regardless, if you ask an attorney before you are sentenced how much time you will have to serve, whatever your attorney tells you is not final. At best, it is a guess. ONLY the Louisiana Department of Corrections can accurately calculate your time. Although you can challenge those calculations,

Hopefully, you have hired someone with many years of experience in handling criminal cases and who has dealt with the Department of Corrections in Louisiana to be able to give you an educated guess on how much time you will serve in jail if you are convicted and sentenced to jail time.

If you properly vet the attorney you hire, they will be able to guide you and explain which of the numerous factors may be relevant for determining how much time you will serve in jail.

Whatever your attorney tells you regarding good time parole calculations is not binding, whether it is correct or not. Nevertheless, it is important to have someone represent you who knows these rules intimately.

The reason why is that oftentimes a client is only concerned about how much time they will serve. Sometimes plea deals can be worked out in creative ways within the rules that allow both the client’s and the prosecutor’s goals to be achieved. Without a good understanding of the Good Time Parole rules, a client’s interests may not be served most effectively.

In Louisiana, There Is No “Truth In Sentencing.”

Most people who have no connection to the criminal justice system in Louisiana assume that if someone is sentenced to serve a jail sentence of a specific length, they must serve the whole sentence.

Those of us who have experience in the criminal system know there are many ways and reasons someone may be eligible to serve less time in jail than they were sentenced to, including:

  1. Parole eligibility
  2. “Good Time” diminution of sentence
  3. Commutation of sentence
  4. Clemency
  5. Pardon

Most people probably think of “parole board” eligibility when they think of parole. This is what Hollywood has depicted in movies like Shawshank Redemption and others where an inmate goes before three bureaucrats and says that they have learned their lesson and hopefully are released from jail early. However, release through that process is rarely granted in Louisiana and is governed by a different law, La. R.S. § 15:574.4 et. al.

Instead, the most widely used method for being released from jail early in Louisiana is the “good time” diminution of sentence, which is often referred to as “Good Time Parole.”

What Do You Need To Know About Good Time Parole?

Generally, the Good Time Parole system was created by the legislature to “incentivize good behavior” by inmates in jail. The better someone’s behavior, the quicker they will be released from prison.

This has led to a somewhat convoluted and confusing system of calculations that allow early release from jail based on the type of crime the person is serving, their past criminal history, the location at which they serve their sentence, and the treatment programs they complete while incarcerated, among other things.

Furthermore, the Legislature is constantly changing the rules. Luckily, the modern trend has been to grant MORE good time credits. However, there is no guarantee that this trend will continue after many years of criminal justice reform.

Additionally, even when there is a change to grant additional credit, the default law is that changes are NOT retroactive. If the Legislature allows for retroactive application (meaning the new law applies to people sentenced before the law went into effect), they must expressly state that intent in the law.

It is important to know that when released on “Good Time Parole,” it has the same effect as being released on regular parole. See La. R.S. § 15:571.5.

That means you have a parole officer, you may qualify for compliance credits (or “street credits”) while in compliance on parole, and you can be revoked and forced to serve the balance of your sentence if you are not in compliance.

Parole is an alternative to jail. Do not take it lightly or you will end up back behind bars.

What Laws Govern Good Time Parole?

The primary laws that you should look at, or your attorney should be an expert in, are La. C. Cr. P. art. 880 and La. R.S. § 15:571.3.

Louisiana Code Of Criminal Procedure Article 880: Credit For Prior Custody; Limitations.

  • A defendant shall receive credit toward service of his sentence for time spent in actual custody before the imposition of sentence.
  • A defendant shall receive credit only for time in actual custody and only once during any calendar month when consecutive sentences are imposed.
  • No defendant shall receive credit for any time served prior to the commission of the crime.
  • A defendant shall not receive credit for time served under home incarceration.
  • A defendant shall not receive overlapping jail credit, except in the instance of concurrent sentences and then only for time spent in jail on the instant felony.

What Does La. C. Cr. P. Art. 880 Mean?

Generally, article 880 defines what it means to get “credit for time served.” To have your time calculated and applied to a particular sentence, you must be “in actual custody.” This means that time spent on “home incarceration” or “probation” is not “in custody” and does not count toward your jail sentence.

That said, Chad Ikerd has been successful in specific cases, getting credit for time spent on home incarceration and/or probation applied toward a sentence. This can only be done in rare cases and with the express approval of a judge, but the Department of Corrections has honored such arrangements in the past.

The one restriction that cannot be overcome is receiving credit “for any time served before the commission of the crime.” In other words, you cannot have time spent in jail applied to your case if that credit was earned “before” the new crime was committed. You cannot “bank” time to be used later.

Additionally, the law makes clear that if you are sentenced on two separate charges unless your sentence is a “concurrent” sentence (meaning you serve both sentences at the same time), then your sentences will be served “consecutively.” You must understand that the “default” position is for sentences for crimes that occurred at different times to be consecutive. If your plea deal is silent, you will be given consecutive sentences.

A good criminal defense attorney knows how to spot this potential problem before you are sentenced to try to work out a deal or make sure the language in a plea is clear. Otherwise, you could serve a lot more time in jail.

Louisiana Revised Statute Title 15, Section 571.3: Diminution Of Sentence For Good Behavior.

La. R.S. § 15:571.3 is the main statute that you must consider when trying to calculate how much good time credit you will receive, and thus, how early you may be released from jail.

It is important to remember that the Legislature can and does change this statute often, so you should always check the most current version of the law prior to being sentenced. The last major changes came in 2017 and 2023.

The language of La. R.S. § 15:571.3 is somewhat complicated for a layperson to understand.

Having taught this to dozens of lawyers over the years, it is hard for most attorneys to understand. I have tried to break down what the current law (2023) says in general below about the amount of jail credit and how you can better understand the law.

Parish Jail Sentences:

Most people do not know that a parish jail sentence (typically reserved for misdemeanor offenses) can qualify for a diminution of sentence. The reason is that most Sheriffs do not allow for good time credits to be earned if someone serves a parish jail sentence in their facility. However, the law does allow a Sheriff to give credits, if they choose. (“The sheriff . . . shall have the sole authority to determine when good time has been earned”).

An example of this is comparing Lafayette Parish to Acadia Parish. Historically, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff has not offered good time credit eligibility. That means, if you are sentenced in Lafayette Parish to a parish jail sentence, you have to serve “day for day” time.

By contrast, the Acadia Parish jail has historically offered good time credits for time served, sometimes up to “2 for 1” time, requiring only 50% of the sentence to be served before being released from jail.

If The Sheriff Allows Good Time Credits, How Much Time Would You Serve On A Parish Jail Sentence?

  1. Most Crimes – serve up to 50% of the total sentence
    • The sheriff may grant “up to” 30 additional days of credit for every 30 days served.
    • Thus, if allowed, and your sentence is 60 days at parish jail, you would only have to serve 30 days in jail.
      “The amount of diminution of sentence allowed under this Paragraph shall be at the rate of thirty days for every thirty days in actual custody”
  2. 1st Crime of Violence – serve 85% of the total sentence
    • For every 17 days served in parish jail, you would get an extra 3 days credit for a total of “20 days served in jail.”
    • This is the same as saying you have to serve 85% of the total sentence.
    • Note: it is rare to get sentenced to parish jail for a “crime of violence,” but there are some misdemeanor crimes of violence, including Aggravated Assault, La. R.S. § 14:37.

“Except for a prisoner convicted a first time of a crime of violence, as defined in R.S. 14:2(B), who shall earn diminution of sentence at the rate of three days for every seventeen days in actual custody.”

Hard Labor Sentences:

A “hard labor” sentence under Louisiana law does not mean “manual labor”… anymore. Today, it means the sentence will be served in a facility under the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

The bulk of La. R.S. § 15:571.3 deals with hard labor sentences. Below is a brief description of the current law’s time calculations:

Generally, for most offenses, the default is that you would have to serve 35% of the full sentence before being eligible for Good Time Parole release.

Exceptions include people sentenced to their first crime of violence, which requires at least 75% of the full sentence to be served before being eligible for Good Time Parole release.

Recently, in 2023, the Legislature changed the law to increase the amount of time required for someone serving their “fourth or subsequent non-crime of violence.” Instead of the default requiring 35% of the sentence to be served, someone with a long criminal history, even though non-violent, would have to serve up to 66.6% of their sentence before being eligible for Good Time Parole release.

Not everyone qualifies for Good Time Parole. Persons convicted of sex offenses, 2nd crimes of violence, stalking, or those sentenced under the Habitual Offender Law must serve their full sentence unless released through the parole board process.

Can You Lose Or Forfeit “Good Time” Credits?

Yes! There is a specific statute that governs when someone can lose good time credits, or when a “forfeiture of diminution of sentence” is required. See La. R.S. § 15:571.4. Generally, an inmate “may forfeit all good time and credits” already earned if they “commit a simple escape or aggravated escape . . . from any correctional facility, work-release facility or from the lawful custody of any law enforcement officer . . . .” Additionally, an inmate “may forfeit” up to 180 days of good time earned if they commit a battery on a Corrections Employee or “any police officer, as defined in La. R.S. § 14:34.2.”

It is also important to note that the law requires all good time credit to be forfeited if a person is released on good time parole and their parole is revoked. In other words, if an inmate completes educational programs and earns credits, or earns normal good time credits, and is then released on good time parole but later violates the terms of their parole and is revoked, they “shall forfeit all good time earned or credits . . . .” See La. R.S. § 15:571.4(B)(2).

Courts have explained, “as a consequence of [a defendant] violating the terms of his good time release, he forfeited not only the good time he had accrued for every thirty days he had spent in actual custody, he forfeited the educational good time credits he had accrued as well.” Hampton v. La. Dep’t of Pub. Safety & Corr., 16-0402, p.8 (La. App. 1 Cir. 02/17/17); 213 So. 3d 394, 398–99.

Below is a simplified table showing the current law: (Acts 2023, No. 463, § 1, effective 08/01/23)

Offender or Sentence Type Percentage of Time to Serve of Full Sentence Statute Language & Meaning
Default Offender and Sentence 35% “Diminution …at a rate of 13 days for every 7 days in actual custody

This means after serving 7 days in jail, you get 20 days of credit applied to your sentence, or an extra 65% of credit.
Exceptions to the Default Rule
1st Crime of Violence (COV) 75% “Diminution …at a rate of 1 day for every 3 days in actual custody

This means after serving 3 days in jail, you get 4 days of credit applied to your sentence, or an extra 25% of credit. Note: this does not apply if you have a prior sex offense, or if the current COV is a sex offense.
4th or More NON-Crime of Violence 66.6% “Diminution…at a rate of 1 day for every 2 days in actual custody
This means after serving 2 days in jail, you get 3 days of credit applied to your sentence, or an extra 33.3% of the credit.
NO Diminution of Sentence (Flat Time)
Sex Offense 100%
Habitual Offender Sentences 100% Eligible for diminution if complete “certified treatment and rehab program” while incarcerated
2nd Crime of Violence (COV) 100%
Stalking 100%

As you can see from the above, even when simplified, it can be confusing to figure out how much time you or your loved one will serve in jail. There are numerous factors and it is probable that neither you nor your attorney will know them all until the Department of Corrections does a calculation.

However, it is still very important to hire an attorney early on who understands these rules and can help you make the best decision about your case.

At the Ikerd Law Firm, Chad Ikerd has had many clients who, once these rules were explained, decided not to risk a trial because a better deal could be worked out that significantly reduced the amount of time they would serve in jail. Conversely, sometimes these calculations helped confirm the best option was to fight and win at trial.

confirm that

Call us today for a free consultation about your case. If hired, we will work closely to make sure you or your loved one understand these laws and how they may impact your future, freedom, and family.


Plan For The Best. Prepare For The Worst.

We are often asked, “When is the best time to hire an appellate attorney?” Understandably, many people want to wait until after a trial to see if they lose. This can be because a defendant wants to save money, not jinx losing at trial, or just not being able to think far enough ahead to consider what will happen if they lose at trial.

When You Should Hire An Attorney Can Depend On Many Factors, Including:

  1. Your financial situation – adding attorneys to a case can get expensive.
  2. Complexity of your case – if there are relatively few legal issues, and it is a straightforward “he said, she said” case that will hinge exclusively on factual grounds of who a jury believes, then the need for appellate counsel to be involved in the trial is less than cases that are hotly contested on legal grounds.
  3. The ability of your trial attorney to preserve issues for appeal – if your trial attorney has a lot of experience doing trial litigation and appellate litigation, waiting until after trial may be sufficient. Nevertheless, having someone on your team whose sole goal is to pay attention to objections and build a record can potentially save you a lot of time in jail.

Why Hire An Appellate Attorney Before Your Case Goes To Trial?

Many attorneys are very good at trial. But just because someone is a good trial attorney, can talk effectively to a jury, and knows how to introduce evidence does NOT mean they know how to litigate a case and preserve issues for appeal properly.

By hiring an attorney familiar with the appellate process before trial, you can help develop a legal strategy that does not put all your eggs in one basket––the jury. Sometimes, judges and juries get it wrong. That is what appeals courts are there for to review the trial record and correct legal errors.

However, if there are no properly filed motions or timely objections to crucial pieces of evidence, you may have waived all rights to challenge that evidence later.

Objections are sometimes considered a “use it or lose it right.” If the trial court was never asked to specifically look at an issue or knows that you object to something, there is technically no “incorrect ruling” for the Court of Appeals to review. This is called the contemporaneous objection rule and may be responsible for more innocent people in jail than any other rule. In other words, because some trial attorneys do not object timely, their clients may spend time in jail they otherwise should not have served.

This means it is vital to your case and your freedom to have someone on your team that understands the appellate process and how to preserve issues for appeal.

Chad Ikerd has often consulted with trial attorneys on developing a strategy before trial to litigate crucial legal issues. This can be developing a motions practice to pre-litigate issues with motions to suppress or quash, to get pretrial rulings from the court that can be litigated early to the Court of Appeals through the supervisory writ process. Other examples include developing a trial strategy for handling voir dire objections, trial objections, evidentiary objections, and sentencing objections.

Example Of How We Have Helped When Hired Early Enough In The Process:

Recently, the Ikerd Law Firm was hired to handle an appeal after a conviction and sentence were imposed, but before a motion for appeal was filed. Immediately, Chad Ikerd realized there were several issues with the sentence that were not objected to at sentencing. To make sure the client had every issue available for appeal, we filed a motion to reconsider the sentence that laid out numerous issues the trial court did not fully consider at the first sentencing hearing.

The trial court granted a new hearing on the motion to reconsider. At the hearing, the trial court amended the original sentence, removing a restriction on the client earning good time credit.

If the Ikerd Law Firm had not been hired early enough in the process, this issue may have been abandoned and the client would have served “flat time” in the Department of Corrections (DOC) custody.

The timing was everything!


Lost Your Trial? Now What?

You have spent years waiting for trial and when it finally arrived, you lost. Now what?

Under both the Louisiana Constitution and the United States Constitution, you have an absolute right to appeal your case to a higher appellate court. In Louisiana, there are five appellate circuits. Each Circuit covers a geographic area of the State; see map here.
Brought to you by Each Circuit generally follows the same rules, but they all have special procedures an experienced appellate attorney can help you navigate.

The first thing you need to do if you lose a trial or receive an excessive sentence is make sure your trial attorney knows how to preserve legal issues to appeal later. Many criminal defendants mistakenly believe if they lose at trial, they will “get it back on appeal.” This is very rarely the case unless there is an effort to preserve and assign errors to the trial court’s rulings. Without an objection, there is almost no guarantee an appellate court will, or even can, review and reverse a ruling.

There are certain motions you must file after trial to preserve issues for appeal, particularly when it comes to excessive sentencing. If those motions are not filed, you CANNOT raise some issues on appeal.

After crucial post-trial motions (new trial, post-judgment verdict of acquittal, motion to reconsider sentence) are filed and heard by the trial court, you or your attorney must file a motion to appeal your conviction and/or sentence to the appropriate court of appeal.

You only have 30 days from the date of your sentence, or the date your motion to reconsider your sentence was denied, to file this motion. If you miss the deadline, there may be other options to get your right to an appeal back, but the best practice is to file the appeal immediately after all issues related to your sentence are final.

Possible Outcomes When Appealing A Conviction

The possible outcomes that can result in appealing a conviction or sentence in Louisiana depend on what relief you are asking for and what issues are raised. Except when the Courts of Appeal find an “error patent,” the appellate courts of Louisiana will only address issues the parties specifically ask to be reviewed. In other words, they will only review issues that were objected to at the trial court and raised as assignments of error on appeal.

Generally, however, the following outcomes may be available, depending upon the facts of your case, in addition to your conviction being upheld, the appellate courts may rule in your favor by:

  • Reversal Of Conviction

    • Acquittal (“not guilty” verdict entered)
      • If the State failed to “sufficiently” prove every element of the crime you were convicted of, your conviction should be reversed and remanded.
  • Remand For New Trial

    • Sometimes the Court of Appeals may reverse a conviction and remand the case for a new trial when there was an incorrect legal ruling by the trial court. In theory, the new trial should be free of the legally incorrect ruling, thus making it a “fair trial.” This can occur when the trial court makes an error in ruling on evidentiary issues, jury selection, statements regarding the law, etc. Trial Courts are given a lot of discretion in making some judgments that call for the credibility of a witness to be factored in, but sometimes abuses of that discretion can lead to a new trial as well.
  • Conviction Amended – Finding Of Guilt To A Lesser Included Offense

    • If the evidence was not sufficient to prove every element of the crime you were convicted of, an acquittal may not be justified if the State proved all the elements of a lesser included crime. This can occur, for example, when someone is convicted of armed robbery, but there was never any evidence a weapon was involved in the robbery. Instead of acquitting the defendant completely, the Court of Appeals may reduce the charge to the lesser version of that offense, such as simple robbery, which does not require the use of a weapon to be proven. The Court of Appeals may then remand the case for new sentencing on the lesser charge.
  • Reverse Excessive Sentence

    • Constitutional
      • When a trial court sentences someone to a “maximum possible sentence” for any crime, there may be an argument to make that the defendant was not the “worst of the worst,” for which maximum sentences are reserved.
  • Statutory

    • Under Louisiana law, there are certain factors a trial court should expressly consider on the record, including aggravating and mitigating facts. See La. Code of Criminal Procedure art. 894.1. Crucially, if your trial attorney does not object and file a motion to reconsider pointing out how the trial court did not properly consider these statutory factors, you will not be able to raise this objection on appeal.
  • Remand For Further Hearing

    • Generally, the Courts of Appeal in Louisiana will only address issues that have been fully litigated and objected to in the trial court. Since the appellate judges were not present when the issues were raised, they can only address issues in the appellate record. However, on rare occasions, the Court of Appeals will decide to hold off ruling on an issue and remand the case to the trial court so a better/new record can be built on that topic. Once that has been done, the Court of Appeals can then issue a ruling. Again, this is very rare.
  • Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel

    • Typically, Courts of Appeal do not want to rule on Ineffective Assistance of Counsel (IAC) claims on direct appeal. That is because it is rare that a full record will exist to allow the Court to decide of whether the trial attorney’s actions were both deficient and prejudicial to the defendant, as required by Strickland v. Washington. Not every bad decision by a trial attorney is ineffective. Sometimes, attorneys make strategic choices to do or not do something at trial. When that is the case, the attorney may not be ineffective, even if the outcome is bad for the client. Oftentimes, a Court of Appeals will not address IAC claims on direct appeal and let those issues be raised later in another proceeding, called a Post-Conviction Relief application.

Can You Hire an Attorney to Do An Appeal?

Technically, if an attorney is licensed to practice law in a specific state or jurisdiction, they can most likely file an appeal in the Courts of Appeal within that jurisdiction. But that is a different issue than whether one can do an appeal right.

Appellate practice is a specialized area of law. The skills and training required to be a successful appellate attorney are different than someone who focuses on trial litigation or transactional law.

There are no juries to persuade in an appeal. The focus is on legal arguments, not emotional or factual issues. Arguments must be well-researched and persuasive writing skills are key to any appellate litigator’s job. The goal is to convince other lawyers (judges) who are versed in the law that a legal error was made in the trial court and that error fundamentally changed the outcome of a case.

Thus, while most attorneys “can” do an appeal, only a select few trained in appellate practice “should” do appeals.

At the Ikerd Law Firm, we are trained and have the experience of filing nearly 200 appeals and writs in appellate courts throughout Louisiana. Contact us today for a free consultation if you need appellate representation.

Experience Matters

Chad Ikerd has handled nearly 200 appeals and supervisory writs in the Louisiana Courts of Appeal and Louisiana Supreme Court. Many of them originated out of Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport, and all the surrounding parishes. The Ikerd Law Firm has extensive experience researching and drafting appellate briefs on behalf of those convicted of crimes.

Chad Ikerd has been a contract attorney with the Louisiana Appellate Project (LAP) since 2015. As part of that contract, he represents clients who cannot afford an attorney to represent them in the intermediate Courts of Appeal in Louisiana. This opportunity has provided Chad Ikerd with the experience of handling all types of cases, including homicides, sex crimes, gun charges, property crimes, and one of the most complex cold-case litigations in the country.

Chad Ikerd has also litigated several cases in the Louisiana Supreme Court, winning each one. In 2013, Chad Ikerd litigated the repeal of the “driving while Hispanic” law in Louisiana, which made it illegal for an immigrant alien to drive in the state without immigration documentation. Chad Ikerd was less than one year out of law school when he began challenging the law, which culminated in the Louisiana Supreme Court striking down La. R.S. 14:100.13 for being preempted by Federal Law.

Since then, Chad Ikerd has also successfully argued two other cases in the Louisiana Supreme Court, including State v. David Bourg, which reaffirmed the trial court’s authority to grant a new trial, and State v. Elizabeth Trahan, which reversed the wrongful conviction for vehicular homicide where the State failed to sufficiently prove the defendant was under the influence and that caused the wreck.

Chad Ikerd has also successfully filed and won a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. The case, Corlious C. Dyson v. Louisiana, vacated the conviction and sentence because there was a non-unanimous jury verdict at the first trial. The High Court remanded the vacated sentence to the Third Circuit of Louisiana “for further consideration in light of Ramos v. Louisiana” which found the Sixth Amendment right to a unanimous jury verdict was incorporated to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.

Jurisdictions The Ikerd Law Firm Is Barred In & Has Practiced Before:

Chad Ikerd is barred in the following jurisdictions:

State:

  1. Louisiana – all courts (district courts and courts of appeal, including the Supreme Court of Louisiana)
  2. Texas – all courts (district courts and courts of appeal, including the Supreme Court of Texas and the Court of Criminal Appeals)

Federal:

  1. Supreme Court of the United States
  2. Courts of Appeal – U.S. Fifth Circuit
  3. District Courts of Louisiana
    • Western District
    • Middle District
    • Eastern District

Proven Appellate Criminal Defense Attorney — Louisiana, Texas, Federal Court

Have you been wrongly convicted of a crime in Louisiana you did not commit? Has a crucial ruling by the trial judge caused you to be convicted because inadmissible evidence was shown to the jury at your trial or did you lose a motion to suppress the hearing?

You need to contact Chad Ikerd and the Ikerd Law Firm, LLC immediately for a free consultation. Chad Ikerd has over a decade of experience in appellate litigation in courts throughout Louisiana, primarily in criminal defense appeals.

We have extensive experience litigating criminal appeals in every jurisdiction in Louisiana, but most specifically in the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeal, which covers nearly all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River.

If you need vigorous criminal appeal representation in one of the Louisiana Appellate Courts, Texas Appellate Courts, the U.S. Fifth Circuit, or even the U.S. Supreme Court, do not wait, contact the Ikerd Law Firm, LLC today!

Schedule a Free Consultation Now

Contact us anytime by phone, email, or chat to find out more about how the Ikerd Law Firm and our experience can work for you in appealing your sentence and/or conviction.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

There is no specific timeline for how long an appeal may last. After a notice of appeal is filed, it takes several months for most court reporters to type up all the transcripts of every hearing. Then, the clerk of court must compile the entire record (court minutes, motions, transcripts, etc.) and send the record to the Court of Appeals. Generally, our rule of thumb is one month for every day of trial or substantive pretrial hearing.

Once the record has been lodged, the appellate court will notify your appellate attorney, who then has about 25 days to read the full record and file a brief on your behalf. The State typically has a few additional weeks. Sometimes, extensions are granted because of scheduling conflicts.

Thereafter, the Court of Appeals will set the case for oral argument, or it will be submitted on briefs. Typically, most courts will issue a ruling within 6-8 weeks of that date.

The direct appeal process can take longer if a defendant decides to ask for reconsideration (within 15 days of the Court of Appeals’ ruling) or files a writ application with the Louisiana Supreme Court (within 30 days of the Court of Appeals’ ruling). Rulings on either of those filings can take many months.

If you have lost at trial, you should never immediately file for an appeal. There are crucial motions you should file even before being sentenced. They included:

  1. Post Verdict Judgment of Acquittal – La. C. Cr. P. art. 821
  2. Motion for a New Trial – La. C. Cr. P. art. 851
  3. Motion for Arrest of Judgment – La. C. Cr. P. art 859

Those motions must be filed before you are sentenced; otherwise you will waive any relief they could offer. If you lose those motions, and proceed to sentencing, and the sentence is “excessive,” you should orally object to the ruling and state the reasons. Far too often trial attorneys simply “object” to the sentence imposed, but do not state the reasons “why” they are objecting (e.g. excessive sentence, failure to follow the statutory guidelines to consider aggravating or mitigating factors, improper consideration of a negative fact, etc.). Without the reasons stated on the record, or in a motion to reconsider sentence, an appellate attorney may not be able to raise those issues on appeal.

Further, you or your attorney should file a motion to reconsider sentence (La. C. Cr. P. art. 881.1) within 30 days of the judge imposing the sentence. This must be done before filing for an appeal, otherwise, the trial judge may lose jurisdiction to fix any errors or consider your motion.

An appeal, unlike a trial, is only to correct “legal errors.” This means that any issues dealing with factual determination, such as who to believe when two witnesses say different things, cannot be reversed by a Court of Appeal. Credibility of witnesses and evidence is the exclusive province of the trier of fact, which is either the jury or trial judge. The reason for this is the judges on the Court of Appeals did not get to watch the witness testify. The credibility of a witness requires being able to see them testify. Therefore, appellate judges do not overturn cases on the credibility of a witness.

Another important thing to remember is that when you appeal a conviction, you no longer get the benefit of the doubt. At trial, you were “presumed innocent until proven guilty.” On appeal, you have already been “proven guilty,” thus, you are no longer presumed innocent. Therefore, on appeal, all evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to the prosecution, not the defendant. This is called the Jackson v. Virginia standard

The honest answer is: (1) it depends, and (2) probably a lot.

At the Ikerd Law Firm, we try to have competitive pricing when handling appeals. However, due to our experience, we compete against others who have similar experience and who you should expect excellent representation from, not the attorney wanting to do their first appeal.

Several factors to consider are: the length of the trial, whether there was a trial or just a sentencing issue, how many substantive motions were filed, and the length of those hearings.

Our initial conversation and consultation are always free. It allows our Firm to find out more about your case and expectations. We should be able to give you a fair quote after that meeting. Call today to schedule a time to talk. If you or your loved one is currently incarcerated, we can schedule a Zoom visit to discuss the case.

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel (IAC) claims are rarely raised on direct appeal. Typically, they are reserved for another proceeding called an application for post-conviction relief. This is because the appellate record will rarely demonstrate all the necessary elements to prove an IAC claim.

On the rare occasion this happens, the Ikerd Law Firm can raise an IAC claim on direct appeal and include it in the service agreement for appellate representation. Otherwise, such issues are left for the post-conviction relief process and would require a different service agreement

Generally speaking, an appeal and writ application to the Courts of Appeal attempt to do the same thing: get the appellate court to review and reverse a trial court’s ruling on a legal issue. However, an appeal is a “right” under both the Louisiana and U.S. Constitutions. Every person convicted and sentenced for a felony can appeal to a higher court, unless waived by a plea bargain.

This right ONLY extends to the intermediate appellate courts. It does not extend to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which has discretionary jurisdiction and can deny a writ application.

A supervisory writ application to the intermediate appellate courts is also discretionary. Typically, they are filed prior to a conviction. Most often this happens when the trial court denies a motion to suppress or quash, and trial counsel wants the higher court to fix the error now, instead of waiting until after trial and on direct appeal.

Nevertheless, the appellate court has discretion to deny the writ application if they feel the trial court’s ruling is correct, the record submitted to the appellate court was not sufficient, or any other reason. Just because a supervisory writ application is denied does not mean you will lose that issue later on appeal.

Chad Ikerd and the Ikerd Law Firm have handled many writ applications and know how to successfully draft a writ application to make it more likely to be granted and heard by the appellate court. If you need assistance in filing a writ application in one of the Louisiana Courts of Appeal, contact us today for more information.

The law requires that a motion for appeal be filed within 30 days from when the trial court imposed a sentence, or 30 days from the denial of a motion to reconsider sentence.

Sometimes, trial counsel will forget to file the notice of appeal and designation of record. If this error is recognized within 2 years of the sentence being imposed, you may be able to file a motion for an out-of-time appeal, or a post-conviction relief application asking for an out-of-time appeal. Most District Attorneys will not object to this motion because they understand the constitutional right to a direct appeal.

If your attorney failed to preserve your right to appeal, contact the Ikerd Law Firm today to see if we can help you.

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