Appeal Bonds 101: Learning the Basics to Protect Client Assets

• Pages: 7-9
• Date: 01 July 2025
• Published date: 01 July 2025
• Author: Daniel Huckabay
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

Appellate Practice

American Bar Association Litigation Section

Summer 2025, Vol. 44 No. 3

© 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be

copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic da tabase or retrieval system without the express written consent

of the American Bar Association.

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Appeal Bonds 101: Learning the Basics to

Protect Client Assets

Daniel Huckabay

May 09, 2025

If you’re like most attorneys, you’ve only delt with appeal bonds a couple of times in your

career. While it usually doesn't make sense to spend much time learning about things you

don't encounter often, appeal bonds may be an exception. Like the emergency kit you have

at home, the small cost and effort involved with appeal bonds can be extremely valuable if

and when they’re required, and this article was served as your “Appeal Bond Emergency

Kit.”

Staying Enforcement of a Judgment

When a client is facing an adverse judgment, it's important to determine the time frame of

when it can be enforced against them. In many jurisdictions such as California, the filing of

an appeal bond does not stay enforcement (California CCP 917.1), and the client may be

immediately vulnerable. On the other hand, states like Michigan have an automatic stay

whereby the judgment is not enforceable “until expiration of the time for taking an appeal

of right.” (Michigan Court Rule 7.108 - Stay of Proceedings; Bond; Review). Federal cases

have a 30-day automatic stay after entry of a judgment provided under Rule 62 (a).

Post-trial motions, stipulations, or orders from the court can impact the timing of a

judgment enforcement, and thus, the first step in protecting your client's assets is knowing

the local rules.

Appeal Bond Amount

To stay enforcement during the time of the appeal, most jurisdictions require some form of

security to be posted with the court. The types of security allowed vary by jurisdiction, but

the most common form of security used is an appeal bond (also referred to as supersedeas

bonds).