Appealing a Disfellowshipping

Nosferatu

Have any of you ever had a successful appeal to a disfellowshipping?

I did know of one. The man appealed and told them he would take it to court, and he had the money to do it too. They reversed it, but people still shunned him. He had been involved in a company that had defrauded many wealthy JW's, and they complained to make him responsible. He was unaware of any fraud, but they didn't believe him. He and his wife both left after that, and we have lost track of them.

rem

My brother was disfellowshipped and we appealed it. The appeal process was a complete joke, as were the original judicial meetings. My brother was not allowed to bring in witnesses that would clear his name and the witnesses that were allowed weren't allowed to bring up specific things that would have exhonerated him.

It was a stupid thing about underage drinking at some party. Out of 20 kids or so my brother was the only one disfellowshipped. Even elders outside of the judicial committee knew the whole thing was ridiculous but they were powerless to stop it.

It can be a disappointing process.

rem

Mulan

My hubby served on several appeal committees. He told me there are only 2 reasons to reverse a disfellowshipping.

1. You are innocent...............you absolutely did not do what you are accused of

2. You were repentant in your original hearings, and the elders didn't see the repentance.

little witch

Mulan is right.

Unfortunatly, proving innocence on a trumped up charge is impossible to prove.

How do you "prove" a lie?

Plus, the elders err on the side of caution, their concern is rooted to the tower, and not to the real truth.

Usually, the axe falls on the victim. They know to make the damage as less as possible. A lone person in a congregation would be disfellowshiped before someone who has extensive family in the congregation.

Better to lay the blame on one person, than tick off a family of six for example. I think alot of times it comes down to cutting losses.....

Gadget

I know someone who was df'd, but it was changed to a public reproof after he appealed it. He was the son of an elder, and part of a large family. It was common knowledge that he had been df'd but had it overturned, so everybody just shunned him anyway. And most of the people in the hall wanted to kill him anyway because of why he ended up in a JC.

Simon

I appealed when they sent me a letter saying that I had refused to meet with them at a JC and they were accepting this as me disaccociating myself. Of course, I was never invited to a JC ... simply asked if I wanted to have a chat at the KH which I declined.

After the appeal which lasted 3+ hours with 6 elders, they upheld their decision that I was refusing to meet with them (!)

No, there is no justice with the WTS. They make the rules to suit themselves.

pillsbury

Rarely does it happen. It is very much like Mulan said. Here is part of a post I just did on another thread-

One other thing they have clarified is in the elder book it makes the statement "On occasion it may take more than one meeting to reach the wrongdoer's heart and move him to repentance." They said this doesn't mean to meet more than once with a person. Too many elders were trying to help people by meeting with them more than once. They said almost all cases can be handled in one visit. This goes to show there is no concern for the person, just the rules. One experience I heard that made me sick is a person appealed the decision to disfellowship and the appeal committee upheld it. One of them said that they believed she was repentant when he/she met with them but she wasn't with the original committee so he/she was disfellowshipped. The logic is an appeal committe doesn't retry a case, it just looks for any outstanding mistakes the 1st committe may have done.

One other thing they don't tell people unless they ask is they can appeal in writing to the local Branch if they feel both appeal committees are in error. Then someone from Service will review the writeups from both committee's to see if there was any outstanding error in judgement.

little witch

In other words, "lie still whilst taking your beating".

That is terrible, Simon. I never knew that had happened to you.

Well, For what it is worth, you dealt with this in a positive way. Good for you!

You not only demanded justice, but allowed others to tell their stories in an open forum, instead of a closed judicial meeting. Or "chat" as they put it.

I am Scot_Irish, and admire a good warrior!!!! LOL

I am proud of you Simon, and your family!

blondie

I have heard of 3 successful appeals. In 2 cases, the person was not guilty. One of the JC were all removed as elders. What a delicious scandal that was. In the last, the person was found repentant by the appeal committee. I have heard of people appealing it to Brooklyn successfully (just 2 cases).

Blondie (over 40 years)

Appealing a Disfellowshipping

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