Section 1.13 Presumptions on Appeal

• Library: App Ct Prac 2015 Supp

b. (§1.13) Presumptions on Appeal

The appellate court presumes that the trial court functioned fairly and competently. That is, on appeal, the judge and the jury are given the benefit of the doubt, so to speak.

The appellate court certainly does not begin with the appellant’s sentiment that, if that party lost, something must be wrong. On the contrary, the appellate court starts with the presumption that the trial judge did what he or she should have done. Appellate judges understand the pressures of the trial courtroom. The maxim of the law that a party is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one, is an articulation of this presumption.

One example of the appellate court’s deferential stance is that an evidentiary ruling will be upheld if correct, even if the grounds for which it was granted were not correctly stated at trial.

Scholars recite a rule that there is no presumption of correctness given to a trial judge’s opinions about issues of law. This rule seems to exist in the abstract and in the pages of the treatises more than in the work of the intermediate appellate courts. For instance, when a...