Is the error harmless?

Courts will frequently write opinions in terms of harmless v.  prejudicial error.  We hear these terms tossed around quite a bit.  A judicial error committed below must be analyzed in an effort to categorize the type of error committed.  Needless to say, harmless errors will not affect the outcome on an appeal because the reviewing court reasons that the result would be the same even if the error had not occurred.  Obviously, this makes sense . . . if a number of errors will almost certainly occur during the course of a trial – because humans are imperfect – then almost every case would be reversible.  This result would not make for an efficient judicial system.

Code of Civil Procedure section 475 addresses errors not affecting the parties’ substantial rights and mandates that the trial court must disregard “any error, improper ruling, instruction, or defect, in the pleadings or proceedings which, in the opinion of said court, does not affect the substantial rights of the parties.”   This section also provides that there is no presumption an error is prejudicial, thus requiring an appellant to demonstrate how the error was prejudicial, the error affected the substantial rights of the parties or how it would have changed the outcome of the case.