How AppealDraft works

1. Start an appeal

Create an account and choose the court you’re appealing to — a U.S. Court of Appeals, a state appellate or supreme court, or the court that hears appeals from a municipal or local court. Enter the parties, the court and docket number below, and the details for the signature block.

2. Upload your draft

Upload the brief you wrote in Word, PDF, RTF or plain text — even photos of typed pages. It can be rough: missing sections, no tables, inconsistent citations, informal wording. If your draft is in several files, they’re read in the order you set.

3. Upload the record for the appendix

Add the documents the judges need: the judgment or order you’re appealing, the notice of appeal, the docket, pleadings, transcript pages and exhibits. Give each a short description and date (or let us detect the type from the file name) and put them in order — one click arranges them in the usual order.

4. Pay once — then the queue takes over

The fee depends on the court: $99 for a municipal appeal, $299 for a state appeal, $499 for a federal appeal. Pay by card, Google Pay, Apple Pay or PayPal. Your appeal enters the processing queue immediately:

1. Reading your draft. Word and text files are read directly; PDFs and photos are transcribed.
2. Building the appendix. Every record page gets the court’s page number (Da1, JA1, 1-ER-1 …).
3. Matching your draft to the court’s required sections. Each paragraph is assigned to a section and argument point; missing required sections are written from what your draft already says.
4. Formatting each section. Grammar, tone, citation form and point headings are polished — without adding arguments, facts or authorities.
5. Building the table of authorities. Every case, statute and rule, with the pages where it’s cited.
6. Producing the files. The brief and appendix in PDF and Word, and a review report.

We email you when everything is ready — usually within an hour.

5. Review, sign, file

Read the review report first: it lists your word count against the limit, anything that needs your attention (a citation to verify, a missing record reference, the date of service to fill in) and the rules we applied. Edit the Word file if you want to change something, or send one of your two free revision requests. Then sign, file and serve.