Appealing the decision to disfellowship..

sandy

Has anyone here ever appealed their disfellowshipping? How did it work out?

Also, has anyone ever contested the appeal committee's decision to uphold the disfellowshipping? Is so, how did that work out?

We knew one couple who appealed their disfellowshipping and won. That was about 15 years ago. Afterwards, they never went back and were left alone too. I heard he had money and attorneys and threatened to sue big time. Times have changed though.

blondie

I have known of 3 appeals that were successful.

One was some years ago and was appealed to the branch office level successfully(most JWs don't know they have that choice).

One was also awhile ago...it was a situation where close family members were on the judicial committee and there were not 2 witnesses to the deed. That resulted in an elder body being removed and the DFing being rescinded (not a case of reinstatement). The original elder body announced it without consider the request for appeal.

One was within the last 5 years. It was a case of running to judgment without all the facts. The original JC elders are still peeved with the appeal committee...

Blondie

pratt1

I know someone who was DFed twice and appealed to Brooklyn and was unDFed each time.

He had important friends in Bklyn and the local elders we intimidated big time.

One time a sister admitted to having sex with him, he denied it - she was DFed, nothing happened to him. he keep his responsibilies (MS) and when on as if it never happened

Doubtfully Yours

It doesn't work. Once they've gathered enough evidence, or they have made up their mind that they don't want you among them, forget about it!

DY

Mulan

Dave served on several appeal committees, and they upheld the disfellowshippings on all of them. He told me there are only two reasons to reverse a disfellowshipping.

They are innocent of the charges
They were repentant and the committee didn't see the repentance or acknowledge it

He said the cases he served on were all guilty as charged, and wanted to justify their actions to the appeal committee. Not valid reasons.

minimus

I was involved in a few appeals. Here's how it basically works. The appeals com. will ask the JC what their (biased) take on things are. If they are not 110% sure that the elders aren't correct. they will always support the elders.

PinTail

Mine turned out to be a real farce. I could hear laughing going on in their hallowed room of books, after I was asked to go out while they made their holy spirit induced judgement (decision), when I Heard I that, I pounded on the wall so they could hear it, then left, and went and drank a beer and played some pool.

Shane

willyloman

I sat on a number of them. Appeal committees are appointed by the CO and are sent to another congo to handle the appeal. These are supposed to be brothers with a reputation for maturity and a bit of experience in judical maters. It starts with a meeting with the original committee to get their "take" on things and after that, as has been noted above, the chances of a successful appeal diminish dramatically.

Making it even more difficult is the WTS' instructions to appeal committees, to the effect that there is really only one reason to overturn a judicial decision: Did the original committee commit a serious error in judgment? That's pretty much the precise phrasing the society uses.

That question would be put to the original committee, which of course would always deny they made any serious errors in judgment. The the "plaintiff" would be brought in to face six elders (or more) rather than the original three (or more). Of course, the original committee would sit opposite the appeal committee, over where the accused was seated, and were instructed to act as observers (speaking only when called upon).

The appealing party would then be asked if he/she thought the original committee "made serious error in judgement" and what that might be. In effect, the responsibility to prove such an error was made is on the plaintiff. This is pretty hard to do, as you can imagine. I was on only one committee that actually overturned a decision to disfellowship. The young women (17) brought her parents, who testified that the original committee (which met with the minor child without inviting her parents to attend) got it all wrong. Overturning their decision was one of the easiest decisions ever. Two of the three members of that orginal committee forever after snubbed me whenever we ran into each other at a convention. The third, a young elder, thanked me for the lesson he said he learned (he's probably on this forum somewhere, or will be someday).

All in all, it's a kangaroo court.

Descender

I've been through two appeals myself on the receiving end, stupid I know. The first time I used the reasoning that I was repentant and the first commitee hadn't seen it, and I actually was repentant the first time. I told on myself, broke down and cried and apologized for my actions and it was all heartfelt. They disfellowshipped me and during the appeals commitee I was scoffed at and called names and told I was a prostitute against Jehovah. At the time I was almost engaged to a good witness girl and wanted a clean slate and had actually felt bad for the fornication that I'd commited 8 months earlier. After I was disfellowshipped, my girlfriend got instantly married to the first ministerial servant she could find. I was 20 years old when that happened and up until about a year ago, I don't ever remember feeling any worse about myself than the first disfellowshipping.

I can thank the elders in those first two comitees for starting me down the road that would lead me out of the organization. I got reinstated in six months and found that my girlfriend had married some other guy and then I decided to say screw it. I'd been a good boy for those six months, studying all my lessons and reading the bible for an hour each night with hopes of being a pioneer and an elder one day, blech. I started sleeping with a witness girl within a few months after I was reinstated. I was way to cocky and open with it and didn't hide it very well and basically got caught with her in my bed by my witness mom, who in turn told the elders.

I denied everything because I knew that there weren't two witnesses. And although they had only one witness and niether her nor I would give up any info about our relationship, the elders DF'd me anyways. I appealed it on the basis of no proof, so it didn't happen. The appeals commitee basically told me I was evil and said if someday I came back, maybe they could forgive me, but didn't know if Jehovah, the god of love, would ever be able to forgive me. The girl that I'd gotten DF'd for being with wasn't even given any reproof and we had the same story. As far as I can tell, unless you have high up connections that can help you out, then there is no need to go through an appeal unless you enjoy torture.

Appealing the decision to disfellowship..

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