Appeals
Wisconsin Civil Rights Appeal Lawyers
Civil rights cases are complex. You need an appellate attorney who specializes in civil rights cases.
In Civil Rights Litigation, the Appeal Can Decide the Case Before Trial.
Civil rights cases are unlike ordinary civil litigation. You need an appellate attorney who knows what qualified immunity, Heck, Younger, Rooker-Feldman, and Hensley mean.
As Wisconsin’s leading civil rights firm, Strang Bradley litigates these appeals from both directions: defending the verdicts and rulings our clients win, and challenging the dismissals and immunity rulings that would otherwise end meritorious cases. Constitutional law is our home turf, and the Seventh Circuit is where we practice it.
Civil Rights Appeals We Handle
- Qualified immunity appeals — both defending denials and challenging grants
- Appeals from summary judgment in Section 1983 cases — excessive force, wrongful conviction, jail and prison medical care, First Amendment retaliation
- Defense of civil rights verdicts and judgments against appeals by governments and officers
- Municipal liability (Monell) rulings
- Appeals involving wrongful death in custody and failures of supervision or training
- Attorney fee awards under 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Why Qualified Immunity Makes Appellate Counsel Essential
Qualified immunity shields officials unless they violated clearly established law — a standard that forces courts to compare the facts of your case against existing precedent at a fine level of detail. Winning these appeals requires exhaustive command of circuit case law and the ability to frame the constitutional right at the level of generality the court will accept. It is among the most technical exercises in American litigation, and it is routinely dispositive: qualified immunity can end a case.
Because interlocutory immunity appeals arrive in the middle of litigation, they also demand strategic judgment about the record — what facts are truly undisputed, and how the appeal can be framed (or resisted) on jurisdictional grounds. We handle both sides of that fight.
Why Choose Strang Bradley for a Civil Rights Appeal
Few firms combine a genuine civil rights trial practice with a genuine appellate practice. We do both — which means we brief appeals with a trial lawyer’s command of the record and an appellate lawyer’s command of the doctrine. Our attorneys have argued constitutional questions in the Seventh Circuit and beyond, and we bring that experience to every civil rights appeal we take.
Answers
Wisconsin Civil Rights Appeal FAQs
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The district court granted qualified immunity and dismissed my case. Is it over?
Not necessarily. Grants of qualified immunity are reviewed de novo on appeal. An experienced appellate review of the ruling is worth getting before the deadline passes.
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The officers we sued appealed before trial. Can they do that?
Sometimes yes — a denial of qualified immunity, for example, is immediately appealable on questions of law. But these appeals have jurisdictional limits: defendants cannot use them to contest the facts. Part of the respondent-side strategy is to hold the appeal to those limits or seek dismissal outright.
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We won a civil rights verdict. How likely is an appeal?
Likely — governments and insurers routinely appeal adverse civil rights judgments. Protecting a verdict requires the same rigor as winning it: a disciplined response brief, defense of the trial record, and readiness to defend the fee award as well.
Is your civil rights case headed to the Seventh Circuit — or already there?
Call or text (608) 535-1550 for a free, confidential consultation. Tell us what happened and we’ll tell you honestly whether you have an appeal worth taking.