Q: Seeking attorney to appeal family law judgment due to perceived bias and improper evidence consideration.

A: Family law appeals are an uphill battle and the majority of appeals are unsuccessful. Judges have tremendous discretion in deciding issues, and reviewing courts (like the Appeals Court) defer to the judge's determinations regarding credibility of the parties. A reviewing court will almost never second-guess a judge's decision to put more weight on certain evidence (including testimony), since the judge was in the best position to observe the demeanor of the parties.

If the argument is that the judge abused their discretion by deciding something that had evidence supporting each side of the issue, that is almost certain to fail. Most successful family law appeals involve the judge making an error in interpreting the law or applying the law incorrectly. A discretionary decision by a judge is almost always upheld unless it is unsupported by the record or goes against the judge's other findings.

It sounds like you would be raising a due process issue with how the hearing was conducted. Judges also have discretion in how they manage hearings and either admit or deny admission of evidence. There are minimum due process requirements, but if the outcome would have likely been the same either way, it may not be a winning argument.

I am not trying to dissuade you (or anyone) from pursuing an appeal of a family law case, however, if the argument amounts to dissatisfaction with the outcome and there was no error on the part of the judge, it is really tough to have a decision reversed on appeal.