Is the other side appealing an evidentiary ruling from your West Palm Beach probate lawsuit? If you were the beneficiary of the trial court’s misapplication of the rules of evidence you may have an uphill battle when it comes to appeal. Do you understand the harmless error rule about appeals? Check out this recent case out of the Third District Court of Appeal to learn more.
Evidence Rulings on Appeal
- Before the trial begins you may notice that the other side has begun filing motions in limine.
- Do you know what these are for?
- A motion in limine is used to exclude evidence so that the trial court cannot consider it (or so that the jury cannot ever hear it)!
- If the Court fails to exclude the evidence this may be an appeal worthy error.
- In most cases when there is an appeal the appealing party has to prove that there was error and for sure in this case they do as well.
- But once they prove there is an error the Court will have to determine whether or not the error contributed to the appeal.
- Now you are on the offensive because you have to prove that it did not.
- Check out this recent case out of the Third District Court of Appeal to learn more.
Maniglia v. Carpenter
- This was an appeal from a simple car accident case.
- The plaintiff a few weeks after the incident had a strange incident.
- He was in a golf tournament, and while intoxicated he drove a golf cart into the street.
- After that he decided to fight the police officer that arrived on the scene.
- Needless to say that the other side wanted to bring up that accident at trial but the trial court severely limited their right to do so.
- On appeal the Third District Court of Appeal felt that the trial court made a mistake and that the evidence should have come in.
- The plaintiff also had the chance to show that the error was not substantial in other words that it did not contribute significantly to the verdict.
- Are you in the middle of an appeal centered around a probate lawsuit?
- How are you going to keep the evidence out for the new trial?
Want to learn more about this interesting case?
Check out the entire opinion by clicking here.