The appealable points found
The judgment is read for error of law and unsupported findings, not re-tried.
Civil and commercial appeals, including to the Supreme Court, won on the narrow points of law and the record, not by re-arguing the facts.
Most appeals fail because they try to re-run the trial. An appellate court rarely re-weighs the evidence; it looks for an error of law, a finding with no support in the record, or a discretion exercised wrongly. The firm reads the judgment for those points, and only those, and builds the appeal, or the defence of the judgment, around them.
The firm reads the judgment against the record to find the points that an appeal can actually win on, because an appeal is decided on a handful of issues, not on the whole trial replayed. It is candid about which grounds are real and which are not, since a brief padded with weak grounds buries the strong one. Where the client won below, it builds the case for leaving the judgment undisturbed.
The judgment is read for error of law and unsupported findings, not re-tried.
The weak grounds are dropped so the strong one is heard.
The same appellate discipline from either side.
A party that lost a commercial judgment instructs the firm to assess an appeal. The firm reads the judgment against the record, isolates the points of law that can carry an appeal, advises candidly on the prospects, and where it proceeds, seeks a stay of execution while the appeal is heard.
Described in abbreviated, anonymised form to preserve client confidentiality.
As a rule a civil appeal is filed within 60 days of service of the judgment, and an application for leave to appeal an interim decision within a shorter period, so the judgment should be assessed quickly.
Typically an error of law, a factual finding with no support in the record, or a wrongful exercise of discretion; ordinary disagreement with the outcome, without one of these, rarely succeeds.
Sometimes, on application, where the balance favours holding enforcement until the appeal is decided; a stay is not automatic and has to be argued for.