They think that you can get certain remedies or certain wrongs addressed in different places that are necessarily correct. For example, the direct appeal challenges all of the legal rulings made by the court that you disagree with. That type of challenge or appeal does not go to the lawyer’s effective assistance at your case. It doesn’t go to whether new evidence develops after your trial that contradicts what a witness might have testified against you. You can’t argue those types of things in your direct appeal, so the misconception is, “My lawyer did a terrible job”, that has to wait for your post-conviction 3.850 motion.
A Direct Appeal Can Take an Year or Two Years to be Decided in Florida
You have to go through your direct appeal or you waive it because there might be relief that you can get there too. Even though you think your lawyer just did a terrible job, you don’t want to forego your right to your direct appeal and that generally, because there’s a 30-day time limitation on that, has to be done right away. Unfortunately, your direct appeal can take a year to two years to be decided but once it’s decided, then you’ve got additional time to file your other post-conviction motions regarding whether or not the sentence was legal, whether or not your lawyer fell below the standard of competence and caused you prejudice in your case. You should avail yourself of all these things but there are certain arguments to be made for each type of scenario; they all can’t be argued in the same situation.
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