So if you lose an appeal to the supreme court, you file a cert petition, but what if you win the appeal..?

A cert petition (petition of certiorari) is the writ you file to ask the Supreme Court to take your case. If you lose your case, or if the court doesn't choose to take your case (denies cert), your case is over. You could petition for reconsideration, but that's extremely rare and almost certain to fail.

The Supreme Court only grants cert to a few hundred cases out of the 10,000+ petitions it receives every year. The steps are:

1. Petition for cert after the case is decided in the highest court in a state or in a US Court of Appeals. Your petition is your best brief description of your case, the legal question, the relevant court decisions.

2. Your case gets put on the docket for review.

3. The court decides whether or not to take your case.

4. If you are denied cert, your case is dead. If you are granted cert, you write your brief, the other party writes its brief, outside parties can write amicus briefs. You get a date for oral arguments. You argue your case in front of the court. You wait for the decision.

5. The Supreme Court could send your case back to the lower court with instructions to rehear the case and apply their opinion, or the Supreme Court could decide your case and issue a final opinion. If you get a final opinion, the case is dead.

No, you don't file cert after you lose at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is the final stage. Period.

When you lose at Appellate Court, you file a cert petition to the Supreme Court. If they take it, then you submit a legal brief and present oral arguments on the issue at hand, and the Supreme Court makes the final determination. After the Supreme Court rules, thats it, you are done. If the Supreme Court denies the Cert petition and does not take the case, then again, thats it, you are done.