By Ronald W. Chapman II
Last reviewed: April 2026
If you were convicted or sentenced in federal court, the appeal clock usually starts immediately. In most federal criminal cases, the defendant’s notice of appeal must be filed within 14 days after entry of judgment. A federal criminal appeal is not a second trial. It is a disciplined attack on legal error in the existing record: rulings, objections, instructions, plea proceedings, sentencing findings, and the way federal law was applied. I handle federal criminal appeals nationwide. My practice is built around the kinds of cases that most firms never see or never want: complex white-collar prosecutions, healthcare fraud allegations, controlled-substances cases, document-heavy fraud trials, and matters where a criminal judgment also threatens a license, a business, a medical career, government program participation, or a professional reputation. Before building this practice, I served as a prosecutor and as a U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate. I later earned an LL.M. in Health Care Law from Loyola University Chicago. That background matters on appeal because appellate issues do not arise in a vacuum. They grow out of trial records, plea records, sentencing records, and the strategic decisions made before the district court ever entered judgment.
Federal criminal appeals: quick facts
- In most federal criminal cases, the defendant must file a notice of appeal within 14 days after entry of judgment.
- A direct appeal is usually decided from the district-court record, not from new evidence.
- Oral argument is possible, but not every case is argued.
- Sentence-only appeals are common, especially after guilty pleas.
- A petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc is usually due within 14 days after judgment in the court of appeals.
- A petition for writ of certiorari is generally due within 90 days after entry of judgment or denial of rehearing.
- A motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is different from a direct appeal and usually carries a 1-year limitations period.
Why this page matters now
Federal criminal appeals are not a technical sideshow. They are a substantial part of the federal system. The federal courts reported 9,392 criminal appeals filed in the regional circuits in fiscal year 2025, and for merits decisions the median time from notice of appeal to last opinion or final order was about 10.2 months. That means two things for clients: appeals are common, and they move on a procedural track that rewards preparation, precision, and patience.
The first stage, however, is not patient. It is urgent. The deadline to protect the direct appeal is short. If new appellate counsel is going to be retained, that decision often has to happen before the family has emotionally processed the sentence.
What is a federal criminal appeal?
A federal criminal appeal asks the United States Court of Appeals to review a district court’s judgment for legal error. The court of appeals does not re-try the case. It does not hear all of the witnesses again. It does not revisit every factual dispute simply because the defendant disagrees with the result. It reviews the record that already exists: motions, orders, transcripts, plea colloquies, exhibits, sentencing findings, jury instructions, verdict forms, and the law the district court applied.
That distinction is where many clients start out confused. People understandably want the appellate court to “hear the whole case over.” That is not what the federal appellate process is designed to do. A direct appeal is about legal error and whether that error matters under the governing standard of review.
The recurring questions sound like this:
- Did the district court misapply federal law?
- Was evidence admitted or excluded incorrectly?
- Was a suppression ruling legally wrong?
- Was the guilty plea knowing and voluntary?
- Does the appeal waiver actually bar review?
- Did the court miscalculate the Guidelines?
- Was the sentence procedurally or substantively unsound?
- Did the district court fail to address key mitigation or defense arguments?
- Was the jury instructed properly?
- Was the evidence sufficient as a matter of law?
Those are appellate questions. They require a different mindset than trial work. A strong appellate lawyer is not simply angry about the result. He is disciplined about the record, the governing law, and the standard of review.
How long do you have to appeal?
In most federal criminal cases, the defendant’s notice of appeal must be filed within 14 days after the entry of judgment. Certain timely post-trial motions under Rules 29, 33, and 34 can affect the timing. And the district court may extend the time for filing a criminal notice of appeal for up to 30 additional days upon a showing of excusable neglect or good cause. But waiting around to see whether more time can be found is not a strategy. It is how rights are lost.
One of the most important things I do in any possible appeal is secure the deadline before doing anything elegant. We confirm the judgment date. We determine whether a tolling motion exists. We identify whether trial counsel has already filed the notice. If not, we get to the only issue that matters in that moment: preservation of the appeal itself.
What can be appealed in a federal criminal case?
Convictions after trial
If the case went to trial, the appeal may involve suppression rulings, evidentiary questions, jury instruction issues, prosecutorial misconduct, sufficiency of the evidence, constructive amendment problems, expert testimony, Confrontation Clause questions, or sentencing errors that occurred after the verdict.
Sentences after trial
Some appeals attack both conviction and sentence. Others accept the verdict and challenge only sentencing. In complex federal cases, particularly fraud and healthcare cases, sentencing issues can be outcome-determinative because a bad guidelines calculation can add years.
Guilty-plea cases
A guilty plea narrows the available issues, but it does not automatically end appellate review. Depending on the plea structure, the Rule 11 colloquy, the waiver language, and the sentence imposed, the direct appeal may still matter. In many plea cases, the strongest issues concern the sentence, the scope of the appeal waiver, the knowing and voluntary nature of the plea, or whether a claim belongs in collateral review under § 2255 instead.
What happens after the notice of appeal is filed?
1. The appeal is preserved
The notice of appeal is the first essential step. Without it, there is no ordinary direct appeal.
2. Release and surrender issues are evaluated
If the client hopes to remain out pending appeal, that analysis begins immediately. Release pending appeal is difficult, highly fact-specific, and governed by a stricter post-conviction standard.
3. The record is assembled
Transcripts, pleadings, exhibits, sentencing materials, and orders become the foundation of the appeal. Bad record decisions at this stage can weaken the entire case.
4. The issue map is built
A strong appeal is not a recycling of every complaint trial counsel ever had. It is a selective process. The issues have to be identified, researched, narrowed, and matched to the right standard of review.
5. The opening brief is filed
This is the engine of the appeal. It frames the questions, presents the record, states the governing law, and explains why the judgment should be reversed, vacated, or remanded.
6. The government answers
The United States will almost always press waiver, forfeiture, harmless error, deference, and preservation arguments.
7. Reply and oral argument
Some cases are argued. Some are submitted on the briefs. Even where oral argument is granted, the briefs must be capable of carrying the case without rescue.
8. The panel issues a decision
The result may be affirmance, reversal, vacatur, remand, or a mixed outcome.
9. The case moves to the next decision point
That may mean rehearing, rehearing en banc, certiorari, resentencing on remand, or collateral review under § 2255.
Why standards of review decide appeals
Clients often assume that if the judges see the unfairness of what happened, the appeal will be won. That is not how federal appellate practice works. The standard of review often decides the difficulty of the case before the court reaches the merits.
A pure legal question reviewed de novo gives the district court no deference on the legal issue.
An issue reviewed for abuse of discretion is harder because the district court gets more room to operate.
An issue reviewed only for plain error because it was not properly preserved is harder still.
That is why I do not measure an appellate issue only by how upset the client is about it. I measure it by whether it was preserved, how it fits the record, what standard applies, and whether the legal error actually changes the outcome.
Can you appeal after a guilty plea?
Sometimes, yes. But the analysis is narrower and more technical. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 allows a conditional plea if the court and the government consent and the defendant reserves in writing the right to obtain appellate review of a specified pretrial ruling. Outside that structure, a guilty plea usually waives broad swaths of pre-plea issues. And many federal plea agreements also contain express appeal waivers.
That still does not end the inquiry. I routinely evaluate whether the plea and the waiver were truly knowing and voluntary, whether the court adequately explained the consequences, whether the government honored the agreement, and whether the sentence or claim falls outside the waiver’s actual language.
Can you appeal only the sentence?
Absolutely. In many federal cases, especially after a plea, the best direct appeal is a sentence appeal. Federal law allows appellate review of otherwise final federal sentences in defined circumstances, including when a sentence was imposed in violation of law or resulted from an incorrect application of the Guidelines.
That is especially important in white-collar, healthcare, and regulated-entity matters, where sentencing disputes often involve:
- loss calculations
- intended loss versus actual loss
- role enhancements
- sophisticated-means allegations
- relevant-conduct disputes
- restitution and forfeiture consequences
- supervised release conditions
- procedural reasonableness
- substantive reasonableness
I have spent years litigating the kinds of healthcare and financial cases where the guidelines battle becomes the real war. That experience matters on appeal because sentence appeals are often won or lost in the precision of the record and the discipline of the objections.
What I do when I am retained for a federal criminal appeal
When I take a federal appeal, I do not begin by throwing every possible grievance into a brief. I begin by controlling the process.
First: protect the deadline
If the notice of appeal has not been filed, that becomes the immediate priority.
Second: rebuild the case with an appellate lens
I gather the indictment, motions, plea papers if any, verdict materials, sentencing filings, transcripts, and judgments. Trial counsel sees the case from inside the fight. Appellate counsel has to reconstruct where the legal fault lines are.
Third: map the issues and standards of review
This is where a serious appeal starts to take shape. I want to know not just what the potential issues are, but whether they are preserved, waived, forfeited, or better suited for § 2255.
Fourth: scrutinize pleas and waivers
If the case resolved by plea, I examine the Rule 11 colloquy, the waiver language, the plea agreement, and the sentencing record. Many appeals are lost because lawyers read the waiver loosely and stop thinking. I do the opposite.
Fifth: audit the sentence
In federal white-collar and healthcare cases, sentencing errors can be buried in dense factual findings, pre-sentence-report disputes, enhancement theories, and restitution or forfeiture questions. This is one of the reasons my healthcare regulatory background matters. I understand how criminal judgments can collide with reimbursement, licensure, DEA, OIG, and business risk.
Sixth: brief selectively and forcefully
The opening brief has to be written for judges, not for a client’s understandable anger. Federal appeals are rarely won by volume. They are won by selection, rigor, and credibility.
Seventh: prepare for the next step before the opinion arrives
A serious appellate lawyer should already be thinking about rehearing, certiorari, 2255, resentencing on remand, and the collateral consequences that can outlive the judgment.
Why clients hire me for appeals
I am not an appellate lawyer in the abstract. I am a federal defense lawyer who has spent years handling the kinds of cases that generate serious appeals: healthcare fraud, controlled-substances cases, complex conspiracy matters, document-heavy white-collar prosecutions, and matters involving physicians, clinic owners, executives, and regulated businesses.
My background matters here.
I am a former prosecutor and a former U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate. I earned an LL.M. in Health Care Law because many of the most difficult federal cases do not end with the criminal judgment. They also threaten licenses, reimbursement, DEA registrations, exclusion, civil exposure, and the future of a professional practice or business. My site already reflects the scale of that work: more than 150 federal acquittals, 188 federal counts defeated, and approximately $550 million in federal investigations and indictments handled. It also highlights one of the defining healthcare trial victories of my career: the defense of physicians in a massive federal healthcare fraud and opioid case that ended in sweeping acquittals.
That trial background matters on appeal. Appellate issues are created in the district court. The lawyer who understands how records are made, how prosecutors build cases, and how judges think under pressure is better positioned to identify the real reversible error.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a federal criminal appeal?
In most federal criminal cases, the notice of appeal must be filed within 14 days after entry of judgment.
Can I appeal after a guilty plea?
Sometimes. The answer depends on the plea structure, the Rule 11 colloquy, any appeal waiver, the sentence, and the issue you want to raise.
Can I appeal only my sentence?
Yes. Many federal appeals focus on sentencing issues alone.
Is a federal criminal appeal a new trial?
No. A direct appeal generally reviews the existing district-court record for legal error.
Can I stay out on bond pending appeal?
Possibly, but release pending appeal is difficult and governed by a strict statutory standard.
What happens if I lose in the court of appeals?
The next steps may include panel rehearing, rehearing en banc, a petition for writ of certiorari, or collateral review under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.
Do I need a different lawyer for the appeal?
Often, yes. Trial work and appellate work require different instincts, and fresh appellate counsel can help identify issues more objectively.
Speak with a federal criminal appeals attorney now
If judgment has entered in your federal case, the clock is already running.
If you are considering a direct appeal, a sentence appeal, a challenge after a guilty plea, or a post-opinion strategy, I can evaluate the record and tell you what is real, what is weak, and what has to happen next. My firm handles federal criminal matters nationwide, with a particular depth in high-stakes healthcare, white-collar, and regulated-entity cases where appellate strategy has to account for more than prison exposure alone.
Call 346-242-7626 for a confidential consultation.