Mississippi Court Records Search
The Mississippi Court of Appeals is called the error-correcting court and it is the intermediate appellate court for the state. The Supreme Court assigns all cases to the Court of Appeals. Cases reviewed in the Court of Appeals may be re-reviewed by the Supreme Court, but this is a rare occurrence. Usually, the decision made by the Court of Appeals stands as binding.
Mississippi’s Court of Appeals was established in 1995 to help take the backlog off the Supreme Court. Lower courts in the state like the Circuit, Chancery, County, Justice or Municipal Courts can send their appeals to the Court of Appeals. The Mississippi Court of Appeals also handles administrative agency appeals. If any party is dissatisfied with the verdict in their case and they file an appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals will review the original case documents, oral arguments, and briefs to determine if any errors were made. Usually, a panel of three judges sits to review each case. One judge is chosen as a Chief Judge for the case. Only two of the three judges need to agree for there to be a majority vote, and their decision is final.
The only items that go directly to the Supreme Court are “annexations, bond issues, constitutionality challenges, death penalty cases, disciplinary matters involving attorneys and judges, election contests, certified questions from the federal court, utility rates, cases of first impression and issues of broad public interest.”
There are ten Court of Appeals judges who are elected from five judicial districts. The non-partisan elections are spread out so that the entire group is not elected at the same time. Mississippi Court of Appeals judges serve eight-year terms.
The State of Mississippi Judiciary website has extensive information about the Court of Appeals including judge biographies, a map and listing of each judicial district, past decisions, the docket calendar and a place where visitors can watch oral arguments via Webcast.