Cathie Gauthier is appealing her conviction on charges she killed her three children as part of a New Year's Eve murder-suicide pact. (Jacques Boissinot/ Canadian Press)

A Saguenay, Que., woman convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of her three children is appealing the verdict.

Cathie Gauthier’s lawyer, Dominique Bouchard served formal notice of his intention to appeal Friday morning.

He said the Judge Jean-Claude Beaulieu’s directives to the jury were incomplete and full of errors.

The judge’s decision to allow the media to report on certain facts while the jury was deliberating was also a mistake, Bouchard said.

In all, Bouchard said he has seven reasons for filing the appeal.

"I want to avoid pleading out the case in the media," he said. "I am reserving my comments for the Court of Appeal."

Burdened by debt and unemployed, the Crown argued Gauthier and her husband, Marc Laliberté, had made a pact to kill themselves and their three children.

The bodies of Joëlle, 12, Marc-Ange, 7, and Louis-Philippe Laliberté, 4, were found near their dead father in the family’s rented home on Jan. 2.

The children were poisoned by a mix of Gravol anti-nausea medication and a tranquillizer.

Their father died of blood loss due to a cut on his wrist, worsened by a heart condition.

Gauthier was also found with her wrist slit.

The defence argued Laliberté was responsible for the children’s deaths.

The Crown presented letters written by Gauthier in which she tried to make relatives, former employers and a best friend feel guilty for the tragic events that would unfold on Dec. 31, 2008.

While the jury was deliberating, the media reported on the fact that Gauthier had attempted suicide while awaiting her trial. The information, which was not presented to the jury, was the subject of a publication ban during the trial.

Gauthier was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole before 25 years.