[QUOTE=Oy!]
Also, Bricker, why do you believe the case will be reviewed *de novo * and could you explain exactly what that means to those of us who are not lawyers and haven’t encountered the term before? I mean, going back to my high school Latin, it looks like of or from new, but I don’t quite know how that applies here.
[/QUOTE]
Sure.
An appellate court has several different “modes” of review.
When a trial court has made a finding of fact, the appellate court is pretty much bound to accept it. The only way a finding of fact may be disturbed on appeal is if the appellate court determines that it’s without any support in the record.
But a conclusion of law is different. When a trial court reaches a conclusion about what the law is, the appellate court has no particular deference for that conclusion. They don’t give it any weight at all; they consider the question afresh, anew, from the beginning – “de novo”.