However, such rulings only reverse the legal holdings of those prior rulings (generally meaning the "rules" developed by or applied in those prior rulings). Generally, the outcomes of the underlying cases are not automatically reversed. Defendants in criminal cases can usually appeal their outcomes even if their cases has been finalized (all appeals concluded), but defendants in civil cases usually cannot unless their cases are still proceeding through the court system (i.e., the case is still somewhere in the appeals process).