Object Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Demonstrating Fundamental Error in Civil Appeals

A girl stole her friend’s music and shared it online. The friend sued her, and a court ordered the girl to pay a big fine. The girl hired a lawyer, but the court said she still had to pay. Improper closing arguments can lead to a new trial if objected to at the time of the argument or raised in a motion for new trial. Appellate courts in Florida will not consider an issue raised for the first time on appeal unless it is a fundamental error. The four-part test established in Murphy v. International Robotic Systems, Inc. must be met to show fundamental error. This includes showing that the argument was improper, harmful, incurable, and damaged the fairness of the trial. The courts will not apply the fundamental error analysis if the arguments were already raised in a motion for mistrial or were not specifically listed in the motion for new trial. The trial court’s determination of whether to grant or deny a motion for a new trial is subject to an abuse of discretion standard. Arguments that are violative of a trial court’s pretrial order or prior ruling, intended to inflame the jury, or involve religious references and appeals to a higher power have been deemed improper. If an argument is found to be improper, the court must then determine whether it was harmful. If a new trial is needed, it’s because the original trial wasn’t fair. To decide if harmfulness happened, they look at the damages awarded and the impact of the improper arguments. If the arguments were significant and had a big impact on the trial, then harmfulness is likely. Also, if the arguments were focused on prejudiced issues like race or religion, it’s more likely to be harmful. If harmfulness is proven, they have to show that the arguments couldn’t be fixed by the judge telling the jury to ignore them. If the arguments were really bad and affected the fairness and reputation of the trial, then a new trial might be granted. In civil cases, it’s very hard to prove a mistake was made by the court that affected the outcome of the trial. Even if you do, it’s unlikely the decision will be reversed. If something happens during a trial that you think is wrong, you should object right away and ask for a mistrial if you want a chance at a new trial. It’s rare for these kinds of mistakes to change the outcome of a civil case. This text talks about the importance of raising objections and motions for mistrial during a trial. If a party doesn’t object or ask for a mistrial during the trial, it can be harder to raise those issues later on appeal. It also mentions that certain issues need to be raised in a motion for new trial in order to be considered on appeal. It’s important to address any problems as they happen during a trial. In legal cases, if you want to argue that something went wrong during the trial, you have to make sure you tell the court about it in the right way. You can’t just bring up new issues later. And if the court decides there was a mistake, they might give you a new trial. But not all mistakes are considered important enough to change the outcome of the case. Also, lawyers have to follow rules about how they talk during a trial, and there are certain things they can and can’t say. These are examples of court cases where lawyers made arguments that were considered improper or not harmful by the court. In some cases, the jury awarded the plaintiff less money than they asked for, and in other cases, the jury awarded the plaintiff more money than they asked for. The court considered the evidence and the jury’s decision when evaluating the impact of the lawyers’ arguments. This is a quote from a lawyer talking about making objections during a trial. They mention specific cases where objections were made and what happened afterwards. The quote also talks about the importance of having a fair trial and the consequences of not objecting to certain things during the trial. “To teach its members how to serve the public, improve how the law is carried out, and make progress in legal knowledge.”

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/object-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace-demonstrating-fundamental-error-in-civil-appeals/