Reversal can occur when the decision of a court of appeal is that the judgment of a lower court was incorrect. The result of reversal is that the lower court which tried the case is instructed to vacate the original judgment and retry the case. A judgment may be reserved in part, with other parts remaining valid, however. Furthermore, appellate judges may instruct the lower court to proceed with specific instructions on how to retry the case in accordance with the reversal. For example, in NLRB v. Hearst Publication, Inc., the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that newsboys were not employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act because the appellate court applied common law master-servant principles when the statutory text and history of the Fair Labor Standards Act should have been followed more directly.
[Last updated in December of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]