From Miami’s fraud dockets to Atlanta’s corruption trials, every federal conviction in Alabama, Florida, or Georgia carries the same right: review by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. An appeal there is a separate case in a different court, fought on the record and the law rather than before a jury.
This page profiles federal criminal appeals in the Eleventh Circuit: the Atlanta-based court, the three states and nine federal districts it oversees, and the doctrines that make practice there distinctive. Appeals are the heart of what this firm does: Elizabeth Franklin-Best has handled over 100 federal appellate matters and is admitted to all twelve federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, appearing pro hac vice across the country. She is admitted to the Eleventh Circuit and has appeared before it, and the firm’s brief-writing practice reaches Florida, Georgia, and Alabama convictions regularly. It belongs to our federal courts directory and pairs with our federal criminal appeals hub for the process in depth.
Convicted in a federal court in Alabama, Florida, or Georgia? In a paid, one-hour initial consultation we review the judgment and transcripts, map the deadlines, and give you a realistic read on what an Eleventh Circuit panel could do with your case.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Eleventh Circuit Appeals
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Eleventh Circuit cover? | Appeals from the nine federal district courts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, decided from the court’s Atlanta headquarters. |
| How long do I have to file an appeal? | The criminal deadline is fourteen days from entry of judgment — Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b) controls. |
| Is an appeal a new trial? | No. Review is record-bound: the Eleventh Circuit asks whether the district court erred, not whether a new jury would see the case differently. |
| Who decides the appeal? | Three of the court’s twelve authorized judges sit as a panel; the full court convenes only for the rare en banc rehearing. |
| Is the firm admitted to the Eleventh Circuit? | Yes. Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted to the Eleventh Circuit and to all twelve federal circuits, has handled more than 100 federal appeals, and takes Florida, Georgia, and Alabama appeals as a steady part of the practice. |
Key Takeaways
- The Eleventh Circuit reviews appeals from nine federal districts in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia from its Atlanta headquarters.
- Congress gives the court twelve authorized judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 44; en banc rehearing convenes the full bench.
- Rule 4(b) gives a criminal appellant fourteen days from entry of judgment to notice the appeal.
- The circuit’s prior-panel-precedent rule is among the strictest anywhere: a Supreme Court decision displaces circuit law only when it is clearly on point and clearly contrary.
- In United States v. Dubois, the court twice upheld the felon-in-possession statute after Bruen and Rahimi; the Supreme Court declined review in January 2026.
- Florida hosts a dedicated DOJ Health Care Fraud Strike Force, and the 2025 national takedown charged 324 defendants in over $14.6 billion of alleged fraud — volume that flows into Eleventh Circuit appeals.
- Eleventh Circuit courts decided 447 compassionate-release motions in FY2025 — among the most in the nation — granting 16.8%.
- Review is record-bound and error-focused; the court takes no new evidence.
- Each of the circuit’s nine district courts has its own guide on this site.
- Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted to the Eleventh Circuit, its eleven sister circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and has handled more than 100 federal appeals nationwide.
The Eleventh Circuit at a Glance
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is the federal appellate court for Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Created in 1981 when Congress divided the old Fifth Circuit, it sits in Atlanta and holds twelve authorized judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 44.
The Eleventh Circuit carries one of the country’s heavier criminal dockets. Its territory — Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, and the coastal South — generates an outsized share of federal health care fraud and money-laundering prosecutions: the Justice Department fields a dedicated Florida Health Care Fraud Strike Force, and its 2025 national takedown charged 324 defendants in connection with more than $14.6 billion in alleged fraud. The white-collar, drug, and immigration cases those districts produce — and the sentencing and post-conviction questions they raise — arrive at the court in volume, and its decisions bind every district court in the three states.
Panels of three judges decide the appeals; the full twelve-judgeship court rehears only the rare en banc case. For anyone convicted in one of the nine districts below, this court is the single mandatory stop between the district court and the Supreme Court.
How a Federal Criminal Appeal Proceeds
The mechanics come from the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and the Eleventh Circuit’s local rules, but the rhythm of every criminal appeal is the same: deadline, record, briefs, decision.
Everything starts with the notice of appeal, due within fourteen days after judgment under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b). File late and the appeal may never exist at all — we treat the fourteenth day as a wall, not a guideline.
Briefing follows the assembled record: the opening brief stakes out the errors, the government’s answer defends the judgment, and the reply closes the loop. Many Eleventh Circuit appeals are decided on those papers alone, so each brief must be written to win without an argument.
When the court does set oral argument, a three-judge panel hears it. The written decision may affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand; after a panel loss, the remaining moves are rehearing under Rule 40 and a certiorari petition to the Supreme Court.
The panel never retries the case. De novo review governs legal questions, clear error governs factual findings, abuse of discretion governs the reasonableness of a sentence under Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) — and United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725 (1993), supplies the steep plain-error gauntlet for anything not raised below. Our guides to the grounds for a federal appeal and the appellate process walk through how issues are matched to those standards.
Applied Insight: Healthcare-fraud and money-laundering convictions live and die at sentencing, and so do their Eleventh Circuit appeals. We examine the loss figure, the intended-loss assumptions, and the forfeiture math before anything else — a Guidelines error can take years off a sentence on remand even when the conviction itself stands.
Precedent and En Banc Practice: How Firm the Circuit’s Law Is
The Eleventh Circuit applies one of the strictest versions of the prior-panel-precedent rule in the federal system: a panel must follow existing circuit law unless an intervening Supreme Court decision is “clearly on point” and “clearly contrary” to it — unless, in the court’s words, the new decision “demolishes” the earlier holding’s “fundamental props.” United States v. Dubois, 139 F.4th 887 (11th Cir. 2025), applied exactly that test to keep the circuit’s felon-in-possession precedent intact after Bruen and Rahimi.
The practical consequence for an appellant: arguments foreclosed by circuit precedent will not move a panel no matter how well they are written. They must be aimed at the en banc court — all twelve authorized judgeships sitting together — or at the Supreme Court, and preserved with that destination in mind. Rehearing requests travel under the consolidated Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 40 in force since December 1, 2024.
What’s Moving in the Eleventh Circuit (2023–2026)
United States v. Dubois is the circuit’s defining firearms decision. The panel first rejected a Second Amendment challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) in 2024, 94 F.4th 1284; the Supreme Court vacated that judgment and sent the case back after United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680 (2024); and on June 2, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit reinstated its opinion, holding that United States v. Rozier remains binding and the statute constitutional. 139 F.4th 887. Certiorari was denied on January 20, 2026 — the same order list that turned away the Ninth Circuit’s parallel en banc case — so the national split over felon-in-possession challenges survives even as the law inside this circuit stays settled.
On the fraud side, the enforcement numbers explain the appellate docket: the Justice Department’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown charged 324 defendants in connection with more than $14.6 billion in alleged fraud, and Florida hosts one of DOJ’s dedicated Health Care Fraud Strike Forces. Aggravated identity theft frequently rides along with those prosecutions, which keeps Dubin v. United States, 599 U.S. 110 (2023) — confining § 1028A’s mandatory two-year consecutive sentence to cases where identity misuse is at the crux of the offense — a recurring Eleventh Circuit issue.
And one case worth watching: United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, on appeal from the Middle District of Florida, asks whether False Claims Act qui tam relators exercise executive power in violation of Article II. The appeal remains pending before the Eleventh Circuit as of mid-2026; however it lands, it will influence how much healthcare-fraud enforcement in this circuit begins with private relators rather than the government.
Compassionate Release in the Eleventh Circuit
For years the Eleventh Circuit was the strictest court in the country on compassionate release: United States v. Bryant, 996 F.3d 1243 (11th Cir. 2021), held that the Sentencing Commission’s policy statement bound defendant-filed motions and barred district courts from recognizing their own “other reasons.” The Commission’s November 1, 2023 amendment to U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 reset the framework — the policy statement now expressly governs defendant-filed motions and enumerates broader qualifying categories — so the live question in this circuit is fit within the amended policy statement, not whether a court may look past it.
The volume is remarkable: courts within the Eleventh Circuit decided 447 compassionate-release motions in fiscal year 2025 — more than any circuit except the Fourth — and granted 16.8% of them (75 motions), a shade above the 14.1% national rate, per U.S. Sentencing Commission data. After Rutherford v. United States (U.S. May 28, 2026), nonretroactive changes in sentencing law cannot supply the extraordinary and compelling reason; motions grounded in serious medical conditions, age, or family circumstances remain viable, and arguments that the conviction or sentence is unlawful belong in § 2255 litigation instead.
District Courts in the Eleventh Circuit
Alabama, Florida, and Georgia each contain three federal districts, giving the Eleventh Circuit nine trial courts whose judgments it reviews. Every one of them — including the high-volume Southern and Middle Districts of Florida — has its own guide:
- Northern District of Alabama
- Middle District of Alabama
- Southern District of Alabama
- Middle District of Florida
- Northern District of Florida
- Southern District of Florida
- Middle District of Georgia
- Northern District of Georgia
- Southern District of Georgia
Whether a case starts in Mobile, Macon, or Miami, its appeal lands in the same Atlanta court. We represent defendants at trial and sentencing in these districts, on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, and afterward in post-conviction proceedings and compassionate-release motions filed where the conviction was entered.
Why Our Firm for an Eleventh Circuit Appeal
An Eleventh Circuit appeal demands two things at once: respect for the court’s unusually firm precedent rules and fluency in the white-collar law that dominates its docket. Chambers USA 2026 ranks Elizabeth Franklin-Best for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and Best Lawyers in America made her a 2026 “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice — recognition that maps directly onto the cases this circuit decides.
Clients also get the benefit of the framework she set out in Reversing Your Criminal Conviction: attack a conviction systematically — strongest preserved issues first, standards of review front of mind, circuit precedent mapped before a single page is drafted. We make no predictions about outcomes; we do ensure that an Atlanta panel reads a brief built for the way this particular court decides cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
What states are in the 11th Circuit?
Three: Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The circuit was carved out of the old Fifth Circuit in 1981, sits in Atlanta, and takes appeals from nine federal district courts — three in each state.
How long do I have to appeal a federal conviction in the Eleventh Circuit?
Rule 4(b) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure sets the criminal deadline at fourteen days from entry of judgment. A short extension is possible for excusable neglect or good cause, but no one should plan around getting one — the clock starts at judgment.
Will the Eleventh Circuit consider new evidence?
It will not. The appeal is decided on the district court record — transcripts, exhibits, and rulings. Claims that depend on facts outside that record, such as ineffective assistance of counsel, usually belong in a § 2255 motion rather than the direct appeal.
Who decides an Eleventh Circuit appeal?
A three-judge panel drawn from the court’s twelve authorized judgeships. En banc rehearing before the full court is rare and reserved for exceptionally important questions; beyond that lies only the Supreme Court’s certiorari docket.
What can the Eleventh Circuit do with my case?
Affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand — in whole or in part. A sentencing win often means resentencing rather than release, and a reversed conviction can mean a retrial, so we counsel clients on what each form of relief would actually look like before the briefs are filed.
What issues can be raised in an Eleventh Circuit appeal?
Preserved legal errors of any kind: suppression rulings, evidentiary calls, jury instructions, sufficiency of the evidence, Guidelines and loss-calculation disputes, and constitutional claims. The circuit’s strict precedent rules matter here — an argument foreclosed by circuit law must still be raised to preserve it for en banc or Supreme Court review.
Is felon-in-possession still constitutional in the Eleventh Circuit?
Yes. In United States v. Dubois the court held — twice, the second time after the Supreme Court asked it to reconsider in light of Rahimi — that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) remains constitutional under circuit precedent. The Supreme Court denied review on January 20, 2026, though the question still divides the circuits nationally.
Why does the Eleventh Circuit see so many healthcare fraud appeals?
Geography and enforcement priorities. Florida hosts a dedicated Justice Department Health Care Fraud Strike Force, and the 2025 national takedown charged 324 defendants in over $14.6 billion in alleged fraud. A meaningful share of those prosecutions arise in Florida’s federal districts, and their appeals all flow to the Eleventh Circuit.
How often is compassionate release granted in the Eleventh Circuit?
U.S. Sentencing Commission data for fiscal year 2025 show 447 motions decided in the circuit — among the highest volumes in the country — with 16.8 percent granted, slightly above the national 14.1 percent. After the Supreme Court’s Rutherford decision in May 2026, a motion needs medical, age, family, or similar grounds; a change in sentencing law alone no longer qualifies.
Is the firm admitted to practice in the Eleventh Circuit?
It is. Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s admissions cover the Eleventh Circuit, every other federal circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court; she has handled more than 100 federal appeals, and Eleventh Circuit appeals — particularly white-collar and sentencing matters — are a recurring part of the firm’s work.
Does the firm also handle district court cases in the Eleventh Circuit?
Yes — across all nine districts, from the Southern District of Florida to the Northern District of Alabama. We take on trial-level defense, sentencing, appeals, and post-conviction matters, appearing pro hac vice alongside local counsel where a district requires it. Each district has its own guide here.
Talk With an Eleventh Circuit Appeals Lawyer
An Atlanta panel will eventually judge your case on a record that is already fixed — the open questions are which issues get raised and how well. A paid, one-hour initial consultation tells you, before the fourteen-day deadline forecloses them, which arguments your Eleventh Circuit appeal actually has.