Land Mine #4: Objections

Land Mine #4: Objections

As a general rule, objections must be specific, and they must be timely. Objections must be contemporaneous, or the alleged error will be waived. The objection also must state the specific legal grounds, and only those grounds will be considered by the appellate court. This principle is based on fairness to the trial judge, who should be apprised of the objection with sufficient specificity to rule on any putative error. Further, a party must obtain a ruling from the trial court on the objection in order to preserve the error for appellate review.

Next week we will focus on Land Mine #5: Directed Verdict.