“My parental rights were terminated after five years in New York City family court, I filed an appeal and lost. Now I am in the process of petitioning to have my appeal reconsidered. It’s been seven years. My question is do I have resources if my petition is denied. I was an active participant in my service plan and visitation. My children are now in prospective adoptive homes, separately. What can I do?”

If your appeal is denied, the only place you can go is either back to the same Court or up to a higher one. Sometimes a court can be asked to reconsider its decision. Other times a State Supreme Court (that’s what’s its called in California) will grant cert to review an appellate decision. Procedurally, these would be your options.

As a practical matter, a person representing themselves will have a difficult time figuring out the appellate process, unless they are an appellate attorney, or the Court relaxes the filing requirements, and does some of the research for them.