Apelante

Apelante is a legal term used in Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions to denote the party who files an appeal against a court decision. The apelante seeks review by a higher court, with the aim of reversing, modifying, or annulling the judgment. The opposing party in the appellate process is the apelado, the party who was affected by the original ruling.

Etymology: from the verb apelar (to appeal) with the agentive suffix -ante; the English equivalent is appellent or appellant, used in different legal traditions to denote the party appealing a decision.

In civil procedure, appeals are typically brought through a recurso de apelação. The apelante must articulate the grounds for the appeal, such as misapplication or misinterpretation of the law, or errors in the court’s assessment of facts. The appellate court reviews the record and legal arguments, and may uphold, reverse, or modify the original decision. In many systems, new evidence is not admitted on appeal except in narrowly defined circumstances, and the scope of review may be limited to legal questions rather than reevaluating all facts.

Regional use and variants: the term is standard in Brazil and Portugal, though procedural rules and deadlines vary by jurisdiction. In English-language contexts, the corresponding term is appellant; in Portuguese texts, apelante remains the common designation.

See also: Apelação, Apelado, Recurso de apelação.