A supersedeas bond is the financial security an appellant typically has to post to obtain a stay of a money judgment while appealing it. The bond guarantees that if the appeal fails, the judgment creditor can still collect the full amount — plus, often, interest and costs — directly from the bond, rather than having to chase the appellant's assets after a delay that the appeal itself caused.

The bond amount is usually set at or above the judgment amount, sometimes including a percentage buffer for interest and costs that will accrue while the appeal is pending. Because bonding a large judgment can be expensive or, for some appellants, practically impossible, courts in some cases have discretion to approve a reduced bond or an alternative form of security when a full bond would be unreasonably burdensome.

Juricratic prices a supersedeas bond as a real, near-term cost dial layered on top of the appeal's substantive win/lose probability — the cash cost of simply being allowed to appeal without immediate enforcement can materially change the economics of whether pursuing the appeal makes sense at all.

Appellants and their counsel evaluate the cost and availability of a supersedeas bond as a practical gate on the decision to appeal at all — for very large judgments, bonding costs can rival or exceed the cost of the appeal itself. Judgment creditors rely on the bond as their protection during the appeal, since it lets them agree to pause collection without risking that a reversed or affirmed judgment will go unpaid due to the appellant's changed circumstances.