first of all i will tell you that i was

lucky enough

um to serve in the appellate division in

the in in new jersey

i

did fairly well in duke law school where

i went

and um i interviewed and was accepted to

be a law clerk to a judge in the

appellate division

so

having had that experience

i began to take more and more appeals

because i felt comfortable and more and

more my colleagues were referring these

cases to me now i have

quite a number i think probably i would

say the number of appeals that i’ve

handled are easily in the hundreds

when

does it make sense to appeal

you really in every case

that i

consult with a client with respect to i

tell them it’s really to a certain

extent math

and let me explain

i will be able to tell you or tell the

prospective client

the likelihood of success of course i

can’t

you know guarantee any result but i

could tell someone 75

25

90

that’s one aspect of the math

then i will say okay let’s put that

aside now how much is it gonna cost and

i will give real answers i will tell you

exactly how much it costs and just and

you know oftentimes it’s a capped fee or

a fee that’s

um

that you can make payments toward but in

the event you know how much it’s going

to cost and then

you have to multiply

the likelihood of success

with respect to

the how much it’s going to cost and then

the other issue the other variable

is

how much is it what’s at stake

right so how much money is at stake

certainly you wouldn’t spend

more money on the appeal than than it’s

worth ultimately

ultimately you wouldn’t spend a lot of

money on appeal to maybe claw back

um you know two hours of parenting time

on a sunday

when the kid’s 17

right so you have to put all those

variables together now i say it’s math i

i’m joking um these are the

considerations but i’ll help you through

it i mean i’ll help you make those

determinations on why

when and why it makes sense to appeal

and when it doesn’t