A COMPLETE TRIAL RECORD is essential to presenting an effective appeal because appellate courts have no independent means of obtaining knowledge of the cases brought before them for review. The California court of appeal expressed this fundamental maxim of appellate review in one case: “When practicing appellate law, there are at least three immutable rules: first, take great care to prepare a complete record; second, if it is not in the record, it did not happen; and third, when in doubt, refer back to rules one and two.” Accordingly, a record of the lower court proceedings must be prepared in order for the appellant to establish the claimed error. Error is never presumed on appeal, and the appellant has the burden of overcoming this presumption by affirmatively showing error with an adequate record. The appellant cannot challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a judgment when there is no transcript of the oral proceedings.

Before California’s fiscal crisis began to ease over the past few years, the budgets for the state’s courts were cut by over $1 billion. This resulted in the closure of 52 courthouses and nearly 4,000 court staff losing their jobs. In addition, most civil courts have terminated their court reporting service to achieve cost savings. In June 2013, Los Angeles County Superior Court eliminated all court reporters for general jurisdiction civil matters (except in the writs departments of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse). As a result, an increasing number of California appellate courts are refusing to reach the merits of an appellant’s claims in their decisions and are also warning future litigants that poorly prepared records render the courts’ review difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish. Equally important, this brings a cautionary tale to the forefront for all trial attorneys; namely, an attorney’s failure to explain to a client the consequences of not retaining a court reporter may be scrutinized if a dispute later arises with that client over the inadequacy of the record and the inability to file an appeal.

Originally published in Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine - September 2015.