Chapter 3 - § 3.2 • PREJUDICIAL ERROR

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 3.2 • PREJUDICIAL ERROR

For an appellate court to reverse a trial court's decision in a civil case, any error must have been prejudicial, i.e., the error of law committed by the trial court must have been of such a nature that it is reasonable to infer that the error affected the ultimate result. An error made during the course of a trial that cannot be said to have affected the final result is "harmless" and cannot be utilized as the basis for reversing the lower court's decision. See, e.g., CRE 103(a); Poudre Valley Rural Elec. Ass'n v. Loveland, 807 P.2d 547, 557 (Colo. 1991). However, in a civil case, if the error is of constitutional dimension, it must be shown that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Marriage of Alverson, 981 P.2d 1123, 1126-27 (Colo. App. 1999).

In review of criminal cases, one of five different standards of review applies to determine whether an error requires reversal of the judgment of conviction. Structural errors — such as complete deprivation of counsel, trial before a biased judge, unlawful exclusion of members of the defendant's race from a grand jury, denial of the right to self-representation, and denial of the right to a public trial — require automatic reversal. Hagos v. People, 288 P.3d 116, 119 (Colo. 2012). Trial errors of constitutional dimension that were preserved by objection are reviewed for constitutional harmless error, and require reversal unless the reviewing court is able to declare a belief that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. Nonconstitutional trial errors that were preserved by objection are reviewed for harmless error, and...